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John F. White, who served as President of The Cooper Union from 1969-1979, died on Friday, April 22nd.  He was 87 years old.  The Memorial Service for Former President White is scheduled for June 12th at St. Mary's Church, Tuxedo Park, New York at 12:30 PM.  He is survived by his wife Joan and two children, Susan White Sherman, Christopher Silva White. 

Mr. White's distinguished career spans from 1941-1988.  In addition to his presidency at The Cooper Union, Mr. White also served as President of the National Educational TV and Radio (now PBS) (1958-1969). During his notable career, he sat on a number of charitable and non-profit boards including Bard College and the United Negro College Fund.  Among some of his achievements at Cooper Union are: the establishment of the Frank Stanton Chair, the creation of the School of Architecture as an independent school, expansion of the Computer Center and the establishment of the Cooper Union Research Foundation (CURF).

2005 Guggenheim Fellows
Three faculty members of the School of Art: Professor Christine Osinski, Instructor Shelly Silver, and Visiting Artist Julia Scher have each received a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation along with alumnus Remy Charlip (A’49). Professor Osinski was one of six recipients in photography. Artists Shelly Silver and Julia Scher were among the four recipients in video art. The fellowships are awarded to individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Only a handful of universities had as many as three faculty members receive Guggenheims. Congratulations to all.

Yeon Wha Hong (AR’05) just won a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and will be going to Japan next year.

Cooper Union won first prize in the IEEE North East Region 1 Paper Competition with "LOQI: A Finger Gesture Based User Interface" presented by electrical engineering students: Joshua Fialkoff, Ajit Gokhale, Eric Heinz, and Yuriy Mykula.

Cooper Union took third place in Trinity College's "2005 Fire Fighting Robot Contest" with "The Doozie Douser" presented by Peter Terlecky (EE''05), Andrew Louie (ME'05) and Michael Sudano (ME'05).

The fund for our new academic building grew more than $2.5 million in April, with the support of several dedicated Trustees. Our warm thanks go to Stanley Lapidus (EE'70), who very generously designated his capital campaign leadership gift of $1.3 million to the building fund; to John Michaelson who -- on the verge of opening Imperium Partners, his new firm -- pledged $500,000 to Cooper Union; and to Doug Hamilton who, with his wife Dorothy Cann Hamilton, hosted a magnificent evening at the French Culinary Institute to honor the service of Chair Emeritus Bobby Bernhard. With great support from Joan Bernhard, and the deep devotion of Bobby's friends, family and fellow trustees, the evening raised more than $325,000 for the building fund. Special thanks also go to the friends and family of alumnus Paul Laux whose bequest of more than $500,000 is designated for the new building.

On May 9, Cooper Union will co-host a reception with NYC2012 celebrating Thom Mayne, 2005 recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis were  selected by Cooper Union as the designer of its New Academic Building and by NYC2012 as designer of the NYC2012 Olympic Village.

With the 39^th annual End Of The Year Show, students make the transition from the studios and classrooms to the gallery as they formally exhibit their works in the Foundation Building. Opening night: Tuesday, May 24, 2005, 5–9 pm.

May 24-June 30, 2005
Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture will present a five-week exhibition of student works ranging from architectural drawings and detailed scale models to computer aided renderings. The Cooper Union End of Year Show has a rich tradition of showcasing projects by graduating architects that has helped launch the careers of many now well-known alumni. Contact: 212 353-4232.

The School of Art faculty have selected major pieces by students representing "the best of" each discipline ranging from sculpture, graphic design and painting to video installations. Young artists’ work will include both individual and collaborative efforts, illustrating the school’s continuing role as an incubator of significant artists. Contact: 212 353-4200.

May 24- May 28, 2005
Albert Nerken School of Engineering will participate in the show with "Engineering: The Fantastic Voyage," a high-tech multimedia extravaganza showcasing student projects and featuring large colorful moving images; an intelligent light and graphic show using 12-foot wide screens; and a multi-channel sound and music program. Mini Baja, a high performance off-road vehicle designed and constructed by Cooper Union students, will greet attendees and the award-winning LOQI, a finger gesture recognition system that takes input from human tendons to control devices such as iPods and cell phones, will also be on display along with many innovative engineering projects developed in the Cooper Union labs. Contact: 212 353-4002.

The exhibition and opening night are free and open to the public. Hours: Monday- Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm, closed Sundays and Memorial Day.

Best wishes to ...
Engineering Dean Eleanor Baum who is recovering from hip replacement surgery.

Art School Dean Search: The Search Committee for Dean of the School of Art has identified three finalists. As part of the Dean Search Process, each candidate delivers a public lecture to the Cooper Union Community. 

Saskia Bos
Held Friday, April 22
Public Lecture at 12:00 Noon, Hewitt Building Room 207

Saskia Bos has been Artistic and Managing Director of the De Appel Center for Contemporary Art in Amsterdam for the past 20 years and is the founder of its curatorial training program, which she has directed since 1994. She holds master’s degrees in Art History, History and Media Theory from the Universities of Groningen and Amsterdam and has extensive background in teaching, art criticism, and particularly curatorial activities. She has had leadership roles with projects such as the Biennale Sao Paulo (1998), the Venice Biennale (1984 and 1998), the Sonsbeek ’86 International Sculpture Exhibition, and Documenta 7.

Constance Wolf
Held Monday, April 25
Public Lecture at 12:00 Noon, Hewitt Building Room 207

Constance Wolf has been the Director and CEO of The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco since 1999. Prior to that, she was Associate Director for Public Programs and Helena Rubinstein Curator of Education at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has studied at Stanford University and California Institute of the Arts. Her career in arts education has encompassed positions in university, foundation and museum environments. She has published extensively and is a frequent participant in professional conferences and panels.

Jane Farver
Thursday, May 5
Public Lecture at 12:00 Noon, Hewitt Building Room 207

Jane Farver has been Director of the List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1999. In this position she is responsible for all aspects of university art gallery operations, including exhibitions, publications, educational programs, fundraising and board and university relations. From 1992 –1999 she was Director of Exhibitions at the Queens Museum of Art in Queens, NY, and Director of the Lehman College Art Gallery, CUNY, from 1990-1992. In all, her curatorial career extends back over 30 years, spanning positions in alternative art spaces, as well as major museums. She received her M.A. in Art History from Kent State University, and has served on many advisory panels and juries.

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Congratulations

Awards

• Bijun Tan (EE'05) received the Tau Beta Pi Centennial Fellowship. She is the 20th scholar to receive the fellowship since it was first awarded in 1985. The Centennial Fellow is recognized for "outstanding scholastic skill, as well as dedication to Tau Beta Pi."

• Sieu Ha (EE’04) - Princeton was awarded a NSDEG Fellowship.

• Natalie Bazile (AR’05) was admitted to Stanford for Civil Engineering.

• Two Cooper Union students had abstracts accepted to the Einsteins in the City Student Conference at The City College of New York. The first, entitled "The Oxygen Index of Flammability of Surgical Draping Material" was by a sophomore, Greg Serrao. The work was a collaborative effort with Professor Melissa Micou, Professor George Sidebothom and Professor Gerald Wolf. The study complements previous work done by Drs. Sidebothom and Wolf and is part of an ongoing research collaboration. The second abstract, entitled "Evaluation of the Factors Influencing Popular Opinion of Embryonic Stem Cells" by Ashley Reed, a senior, grew out of a paper Ashley had written for a humanities course. She and has been working on this study with Professor Melissa Micou and Professor Gwen Hyman with the helpful advice of Professor Anne Griffin. Ashley's paper was selected out of over 300 submissions to be an oral presentation. Only five students (3 undergrads & 2 grads) were selected for this honor. For more information visit www.einsteinexpo.com/index.html.

• The American Academy of Arts and Letters recently announced the winners of its awards in architecture for 2005. Toshiko Mori (AR’76) was selected to receive an Academy Award in Architecture, which includes a $7,500 prize and Shigeru Ban (AR’85) won the $5,000 Brunner Memorial Prize.

• Tiffany Alkan, Professor of English, was awarded the Michael J. Connell Foundation fellowship of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 

• John Hartmann (AR’00) and Catherine Seavitt (AR’94) were two winners of Metro Newspaper’s first Five Under 35 awards, identifying the most innovative and influential young architects. A profile of the winners was featured in Metro on April 4.

Publications

• Tiffany Alkan, Professor of English, "Britomart's Backward Glance: Liminal Triumphs and Dark Erotics in Busirane’s Mask of Cupid" in Spectacle and Public Performance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Robert Stillman (forthcoming Brill 2006).

• J. Hoberman, Professor of Cinema Studies: "Major Dundee" (NY Times Arts & Leisure, 4/3/05), a review of Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads by Greil Marcus (LA Times, 4/10/05), an article on John Cassavetes in Film Comment (Mar-Apr 2005). In April 2005, his book The Dream Life: Movies, Media and the Mythology of the Sixties will be published in a paperback edition (New Press).

• Professor of Economics Jeff Madrick’s recent book Why Economies Grow is the subject of a session at the World Bank Conference on 19 April. 

• Maren Stange, Professor of American Studies: "Memory, History, and Universal Narrative in the Work of Carrie Mae Weems," in American Visual Cultures, Ed. Dave Holloway. London: Continuum, 2005: in March, she presented a paper, "The Documentary Context," at the symposium "Annemarie Schwarzenbach in Perspective," held at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, in conjunction with an exhibition of Schwarzenbach's photographs.

• Mary Stieber, Assistant Professor of Art History: "Further Thoughts on 'Eustylos' in Euripides' Iphigenia Among the Taurians, Vitruvius, and a Late Fifth-Century B. C. Inscription from Vergina (SEG 46 (1996) 830)" forthcoming in Philologus.

• Brian Swann, Professor of English: poems in Poetry (Chicago), Georgia Review, Raritan, Notre Dame Review, Chicago Review. Other poems have been accepted by: Southern Review, Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, Massachusetts Review.

• Andrew Weinstein, Professor of Art History: a paper, "The New 'Anti-Semitism' in Contemporary Art," at the Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches; an art review in Zingmagazine; short story "The State Museum," Fall 2004 issue of Boulevard. In the same issue, he participated in "Symposium: Which Writer or Artist Do You Think is the Most Underrated and/or Overrated and Why?"

• Architecture Professor Grahame Shane: "Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory," forthcoming in  June, published by John Wiley & Sons.

• President’s Council member Barbaralee Diamondstein Spielvogel's book, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Buildings, was just published. Cooper Union students, faculty, staff and alumni under the guidance of Professor Christine Osinski were very much involved in producing the photographs for the book.

MILESTONES

• Anne Griffin, Professor of Political Science, has received a $10,000 grant from the Righteous Persons Foundation and another $10,000 grant from the New York Council for the Humanities to support an exhibition on the Belgian resistance, scheduled for the Houghton Gallery in the fall. Professor Griffin is also the subject of a biographical essay in the current issue of the newsletter published by the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States.

• Yoshiko Sato (AR’89) and Michael Morris (AR’89) designed The Ukrainian Museum’s recently opened exhibition ‘Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity’ on view at the Museum's newly constructed building at 222 East 6th Street (between Second and Third Avenues).

• Shigeru Ban (AR’85) designed the Nomadic Museum, an installation of shipping containers and photography that is open to visitors through June 6 at Pier 54 on the Hudson River. Ban’s design uses 148 cargo containers as outer walls and with the help of Dean Maltz (AR’84), the structure was built in five weeks.

• Congratulations to Claire Gunning, who has been promoted to the top professional rank of Librarian. Ms. Gunning is a subject specialist in art & architecture at the Cooper Union Library.

• Julia Scher, Visiting Artist for Spring 2005, gave a lecture on April 14 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She is the 2004-05 Art Council Chair for the UCLA Department of Art.

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Welcome

• Adiaha Eno has joined the Cooper Union Library at the Circulation Desk.

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Don't Miss

General Interest

• New York Times Columnist Frank Rich will deliver the keynote address and receive an honorary doctorate at The Cooper Union’s 146^th Commencement on Wednesday, May 25.

• Engineering Professor Alan Wolf will discuss physics and technology on the History Channel's "Breaking Vegas: Beat the Wheel" on Sunday, May 1, at 11 p.m.

• On The Rooftop – On May 20, Alumni from the classes of 1984-2004 will welcome the class of 2005 into the Cooper Union Alumni Association at this annual rooftop graduation party. For more information, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 212-352-4164 or email alumni@cooper.edu.

• May will be the registration month for the Continuing Education summer term that begins on June 6. The course catalog is available on the web at www.cooper.edu/ce.

• On May 17 the Albert Nerken School of Engineering and the Society of Women Engineers will host "Women in Engineering." Female students from high schools around the city will hear a panel discussion about careers in engineering and science by Cooper alumnae. The first discussion will feature seven practicing successful women engineers who will discuss the work they do, explore college and career options, and recount the climate of today’s professional world. The second group, profiling eight female engineering students, will focus on their personal experiences and how the support of family, high school teachers and friends affected their decision to pursue engineering.

• On May 6 the Electrical Engineering department will present the students' senior projects which will run all day in Room 21E. All are welcome to see the exciting projects that the students have developed.

Exhibitions

Lectures and Public Programs

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