1994-1995
Alisa M. Flatow (would be class of ’96) was killed in a bus bombing in the Gaza Strip during a Junior year semester spent in Israel. An active member of the Orthodox Organization and Brandeis Hillel and a student who gave much of her time to social justice and social service initiatives, Alisa’s death came as a severe and terrible blow to the community. Her parents have established a scholarship fund to help students attend programs in Israel and her father has filed a lawsuit against the government of Iran, where the terrorists who conducted the bombing are alleged to have originated.
— Ora Gladstone, Associate Director, Brandeis Hillel
The new Center for Complex Systems, completed and occupied in May of 1994, hosted the sixth annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Symposium on Neuroscience Research from October 20 - 21. Over 300 people attended to hear presentations from an international roster of scholars and researchers, including Dr. Ursula Bellugi, Salk Institute; Dr. Michael Beridge, University of Cambridge; Dr. Patricia Goldman-Rakic, Yale University; Dr. John Hopfield, California Institute of Technology; Dr. Eric Kandel, Columbia University; Dr. Erwin Neher, Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie; Dr. Roger Nicoll, University of California San Francisco; Dr. Marcus Raichle, Washington University; and Dr. Bert Sakman, Max-Planck-Institut für Medizinische Forschung.
The following day the Center was officially dedicated as the Benjamin and Mae Volen National Center for Complex Systems. Speakers at the dedication ceremony included Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy and Congressman Ed Markey.
— Barbara Wrightson, Assistant Director
Volen National Center for Complex Systems
The Gerstenzang Science Library and its research journal collection received a major boost from the National Women’s Committee’s new “Pathways to the Future” program. The very popular program raised $830,000 over four years to fund renovation and expansion of the Library. Names of donors are permanently engraved on bricks in the courtyard at the entrance to the Gerstenzang Library.
—Beth Bernstein, Director of Programming
National Women’s Committee
To celebrate and support the arts at Brandeis, the Festival of the Arts Committee began awarding grants to students, faculty and staff for innovative arts projects occurring during the Festival. The Committee’s goals for the grants are to support artists, to bring together members of the arts community and to increase the involvement and engagement of the Brandeis community with the arts.
—Judy Huvos, Administrative Assistant
Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences