A cup of coffee
with an orthopedic surgeon and a napkin doodle led Chris
Snell '08 to create a surgical bone clamp that will make
knee replacement
surgery easier for the surgeon -- and ultimately -- the patient. Snell, a nontraditional student who left an electrician apprenticeship and came to Knox to study biochemistry at age 26, had a skill for tinkering with worn or broken parts and creating his own tools. When he watched a knee replacement surgery as part of his experiential learning requirement, he saw that the surgeon was frustrated with the clamp that grips the patient's tibia. "I could see he needed a clamp that performed better," Snell says. "So, I started scribbling on a napkin and asking him about the kind of instrument he wanted."
Creating the clamp became his honors research project. He has applied for a patent to protect his invention and two Knox alumni have provided Chris with expertise on producing and marketing the tool. Read more about Snell's research and Knox experience.
Knox Celebrates MLK Day on Eve of Inauguration
Knox is celebrating Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Day today with a public Convocation in Harbach Theatre. "This year is
an extra special celebration of Martin Luther King
Day, since it comes on the eve of the inauguration of the United
States' first African-American president," said Konrad Hamilton,
associate professor of history and chair of the American studies
program. "There will be a special spirit of celebration this
year."
Hamilton is delivering the Convocation Address, "The Audacity of Citizenship: The Meaning of King in the Obama Era." Also at the convocation, the Knox College Choir and jazz vocalist Semenya McCord '71 will perform musical selections, and Fred Hord, professor and chair of Black studies, will read a poem, "Conversation Dreams of a King and President." More information on the Martin Luther King Day Convocation.
- Tales from the Inauguration -- Did you attend President Obama's inauguration? If so, we'd love to hear from you. Share your experience.
- Share Your Knox Love Story -- Do you have a Knox love story to share? You met at Knox and have been married ever since; you didn't know each other at Knox but met later and married; horror of horrors ... you married a Monmouth grad? Share your stories with us and we'll include them in the next Gizmogram.
- Calling All Foodies -- Do you work in the food industry? Grow it? Sell it? Review it? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, Knox needs you. Please share your story!
You've always been able to look up your Knox classmates using the Knox Online Community's alumni directory, but you can now search all alumni via occupation. So, if you'd like to find local alumni working in theatre or business, simply visit the Online Community, choose the alumni directory on the left-hand side of the page, and start searching. The occupation listing is featured at the bottom of the search options. Please note that the alumni directory is password protected -- if you are not already a member of the Online Community, join today!
Campus News
Knox Choir Third in
National Google College Rankings
The Google College Rankings, an independent project to rank colleges
and universities worldwide, recently searched for the best college and
university choirs. The Knox College Choir, which has toured
internationally and throughout the U.S., was third on the college list,
following St. Olaf and Northwestern College Choirs. View the complete list of college and
university choir rankings.
Knox
On Proposed Barack Obama Presidential Tour -- and Presidential Library?
The
Illinois Bureau of Tourism hopes to add the new president to the
state's historical trails. The
Obama Trail would include Knox College, where Obama gave the
Commencement address in June 2005, as well as the
Old State Capitol, the Illinois State Capitol, Grant Park, and the
University of Chicago Law School. Illinois also has presidential trails
and accompanying historic sites associated with Abraham Lincoln,
Ulysses S. Grant, and Ronald Reagan. Read more about Obama at WGIL.com.
And a Knox College professor has begun a Facebook group in the hopes of rallying support for the Obama Presidential Library at Knox. "He's going to have a presidential library," said Stuart Allison, professor of biology. "The question would be where. I thought Knox is as good a place as any." Allison lists several reasons why he believes Knox would be a good home for the future library, including that it would "continue the Lincoln-Obama-Knox connection" and "land is cheap in Galesburg." Read more about Allison's plan in The Register-Mail.
More
campus news and features.
Student News
Class Visits Japan"Tokyo was our classroom," says professor Michael Schneider, associate professor of history and co-director of the Center for Global Studies, who led a group of 22 Knox students in the Japan Term course on a two-week visit to Japan.
Students took classes this fall in Japanese language, Buddhism, and Asian history. Then, from December 1 through December 16, they visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima. About half of the students in the class will undertake in-depth projects during an optional seminar, Japan Term II, from January through March. View photos of their trip to Japan.
More student news and features.Alumni News
Alumna Pens New Children's Book
on Lincoln A new children's book commissioned by the Galesburg Public Library and written by Elizabeth Harlan Van Steenwyk '48, Abraham Lincoln: A Prairie Life, highlights the importance of Lincoln's life in Illinois. The book begins with Lincoln's birth and chronicles his years in Illinois, leading up to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. It has been distributed to all fourth-graders in Knox County. Read more about Abraham Lincoln in The Register-Mail.
Van Steenwyk is the author of more than 65 books for young people, including A Traitor Among Us, When Abraham Talked to the Trees, and One Fine Day. She has also written more than 300 articles and short stories for adult and children's magazines and received a 2005 Alumni Achievement Award. More about Van Steenwyk.
Abraham Lincoln: A Prairie Life is available at the Knox College Bookstore.
Baird Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Barbara Baird Holowka '73 has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). Baird Holowka heads a research group at Cornell University that studies molecular mechanisms of cell surface receptors involved in the allergic immune response. In the past decade alone, she and her colleagues in the Baird Holowka Research Group at Cornell have published more than 60 scientific papers. Induction as a fellow in the AAAS is given to individuals in recognition of their cutting edge research and scholarship, artistic accomplishment, and exemplary service to society. Baird Holowka received an Alumni Achievement Award from Knox in 1994. Read more about Baird Holowka and her AAAS induction.
The Knox-China ConnectionAbigail Kramer '08 and Sable Helvie '08 are English teachers in Suzhou, China, where they have been meeting with other Knox alumni and current students to help create a more connected Knox community in China.
The pair recently visited with Chip '97 and Sarah Weed Chandler '97 in Beijing, where Chip works for the American Foreign Service. Kramer and Helvie also traveled to Shanghai last summer to visit David '00 and Lynne Wymore Moo '99, where David is an actuarial consultant. To learn more about their experiences abroad, read their blog The Knox-China Connection.
Alumni Notes
Shirley Chap MacDaniel '49 received the 2008 Air Force Village Distinguished Service Award for her service to the community.
Stephen Kaufmann '75, partner in the law firm HeplerBroom, will manage their new office in Springfield, Illinois. He practiced law in Springfield for 20 years before joining Hepler Broom in 2003.
Mo Heshmati '76 has joined Contech Construction Products Inc. as president, manufacturing and supply chain. Contech, based in West Chester, Ohio, provides products and services for the civil engineering industry. Read more about Heshmati.
George Eaton '80 portrayed Douglas at a re-enactment of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates for the Rock Island Historical Society. Eaton has served the US Army Joint Munitions Command at Rock Island Arsenal as Command Historian since February 2002. He is an assistant professor of history at St. Ambrose University and has taught at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.
Horizon Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, has appointed Amy Yeazel Grahn '80 as its new vice president of clinical operations. Read more about Grahn.
Mike Crompton '85, a certified executive coach and the founder of Excel Leadership Group, has received certification as an Emotional Intelligence (EQ) coach.
Caton Metzler Bredar '87 was the lead reporter/writer of the documentary A Legend Re-Affirmed -- the 1978 Triple Crown, which won the 2008 Media Eclipse Award for local television.
The artwork of Jenny Hager '93 is on display through early February in a four-person faculty exhibit at Santa Monica College's Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery in Los Angeles. Hager has been a professor at the college since 2002. Read more about Hager.
Kate Tummelson '97 performed in Look Homeward Angel, produced by the Chicago company The Artistic Home. Trummelson has been a member of The Artistic Home ensemble since 2001.
The Public Theater in New York recently did a reading of We declare you a terrorist..., a play conceived, developed, and written by Tim Lord '98 about the Moscow Theater seige and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Chechnya.
Kerry Mindeman '01 earned her National Board Certification as a middle childhood generalist, which provides her with a national teaching certificate for 10 years.
Will Culbertson '03 is production manager for the Grammy-nominated Conspirare, an ensemble of professional singers from around the country based in Austin, Texas. Conspirare received two Grammy nomiations for their most recent CD.
Read and post Class Notes in the Knox Online Community.
Faculty & Staff News
Schwartzman
Designing a Sustainable DisciplinePeter Schwartzman went to graduate school with an eye to becoming a scientist. A few lectures in climate change and global warming focused his interest on environmental studies. He came to Knox in 2000 -- fresh out of school -- to chair the environmental studies program, and he is pleased with the progress the program has made in the last decade. "We have a lot of students now majoring in environmental studies, students winning Fulbright Awards, and students getting doctorates and then coming back to teach. The future looks very bright," he says. Read more about Schwartzman.
Faculty & Staff Notes
"The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents," a play by Swiss writer Lukas Bärfuss, translated from German by Neil Blackadder, associate professor of theatre, was produced by Electric Pear Productions at the Wild Project in
Andrew Civettini, assistant professor of political science, was featured with other local political science professors in an article about the arrest of Illinois Governonr Rod Blagojevich on federal corruption charges in The Register-Mail.
The High Price of Materialism author Tim Kasser, professor of psychology, has been in demand for his research on materialism: he was featured in Newspost Online World in an article citing materialism as a contributor to the current economic crisis; he gave an address at the International Conference on Buddhism in the Age of Consumerism at the College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University in Thailand; his essay, "Shifting values in response to climate change," was included in the 2009 State of the World Report, released by the Worldwatch Institute; and he was quoted in a December article about teaching values with holiday giving in The Wall Street Journal.
Frank McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, was featured in an article about the importance of gossip in the Chicago Tribune. Read more about McAndrew's research on gossip.
Tom Moses, professor of physics, and Jason Reeves '04, have published an article in the December 2008 issue of Liquid Crystals. The title of the article is "Virtual Isotropic-Nematic Transitions in the Alkyl Cyanobiphenyls."
Natania Rosenfeld, associate professor of English, was a fellow at the
Jon Wagner, professor of anthropology, presented the paper "Where Darwin Meets Durkheim: Methodological Individualism, Social Facts, and Evolving Interpretations of Hominid Sociality" at the Annual Conference of the American Anthropological Association.
Marilyn Webb, distinguished professor of journalism, wrote the chapter "The Media and End-of-Life Choices and Decisions," which appears in the new book Decision Making near the End of Life: Issues, Developments, and Future Directions.
Douglas Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center and author of Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words, compared the oratory of Barack Obama and Abraham Linocln in The Boston Globe. Read more of Wilson's article on Obama and Lincoln.
Submissions to The Gizmogram should be made to the editors at gizmogram@knox.edu. Submissions may be edited for space.
Editors
Megan Scott '96 & Cheri Siebken
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