Brandeis Magazine

Brandeis President Emeritus Jehuda Reinharz, PhD’72, H’11, received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Hebrew College in Newton, Mass. Jehuda, now the president of the Mandel Foundation, was recognized for his vision of excellence in higher education in general and Jewish higher education in particular. “Jehuda’s prestigious scholarship in modern Jewish history and his rare leadership qualities are most worthy of recognition by Hebrew College,” said Daniel Lehmann, the college’s president. Fernando Torres-Gil, MSW’72, Heller PhD’76, is a member of the National Council on Disability. A polio survivor, he was appointed to the council by President Barack Obama in March 2010. At the University of California, Los Angeles, Fernando serves as chair of the Department of Social Welfare and director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging, and is a professor of social welfare and public policy at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He previously was the first assistant secretary for aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and served as a staff director of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging. From 1989-92, he was president of the American Society on Aging. Historian, scholar and author Deborah Lipstadt, MA’72, PhD’76, received an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Since 1993, Deborah has been the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, where she founded the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. She has written several widely acclaimed works about Holocaust issues and denial, including ”History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving,” which won the National Jewish Book Award, and ”Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,” the first full-length study of the subject. Her most recent book, ”The Eichmann Trial,” was released last year. Nancy Cott, MA’73, PhD’74, the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard, serves as director of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The library is home to the papers of the late Julia Child, who would have turned 100 years old on Aug. 15, 2012. For her centenary, the library sponsored a daylong symposium in September. Sister Kathleen Popko, MSW’73, Heller PhD’75, president of the Sisters of Providence of Holyoke, Mass., received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Catholic Health Association of the United States during ceremonies at the 2012 Catholic Health Assembly in Philadelphia. The award is conferred each year upon a leader of the health ministry who has inspired and mentored others. Sister Popko’s closest colleagues describe her as selfless, indefatigable, highly intellectual, analytical, organized and in possession of a great sense of humor. David Harbater, MA’75, is a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, known for his work in the areas of Galois theory, algebraic geometry and arithmetic geometry. Susan Windham-Bannister, Heller PhD’77, the chief executive of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, has helped establish the Massachusetts Neuroscience Consortium, aimed at improving the understanding and treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. Participants include Abbott Laboratories, Biogen Idec, EMD Serono, Janssen Research & Development, Merck, Pfizer and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. Each has pledged $250,000, for initial funding of $1.75 million. The money will go toward preclinical neuroscience at various academic and research institutions in the state.