In the News

The New York Times and The Independent of London published stories about J.M. Coetzee’s second Booker Prize; he won his first in 1983 for The Life and Times of Michael K and this year’s award for his novel Disgrace. The Booker Prize is Britain’s top fiction prize. The stories about Coetzee, a member of the Committee on Social Thought, appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 26, and Wednesday, Oct. 27 issues of the newspapers, respectively.

Alumna Kimberley Peirce (A.B., ’90) has been getting press coverage for her fact-based, debut feature film Boys Don’t Cry. Peirce, a writer and director, is receiving critical praise for the film, which fictionalizes a true story of a hate crime committed in Nebraska. A story published in the Chicago Tribune’s Wednesday, Oct. 27 issue describes the film and quotes Peirce, who cites the University as the place where her passion for intense study and cinema emerged.

Sidney Nagel, the Louis Block Professor in Physics and Master of the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, was interviewed for a story that appeared in the Sunday, Oct. 24 issue of the Chicago Tribune about recent developments in the field of physics.

Janellen Huttenlocher, the William S. Grey Professor in Psychology, was quoted in a story published in the Sept. 13 issue of Time magazine on a study about genetic alterations of mental and cognitive attributes such as intelligence and memory.

The New York Times, USA Today and the Chicago Tribune all published stories on a study by Eve Van Cauter, Professor in Medicine at the University, about the physiological effects of sleep loss. The study was reported in The Lancet, an international medical journal.

The University’s SETI@home team was the subject of feature story published in the Monday, Oct. 18 Chicago Sun-Times. The team is ranked No. 8 in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence among University teams that are analyzing radio signals from space.

A story in the Tuesday, Oct. 26 issue of The New York Times quoted Donald Lamb, Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics, who presented a new study at a conference in Huntsville, Ala., about gamma- ray bursts. The bursts, which are the most violent events in the universe, may help astronomers study the formation of stars. “The bursts are like beacons flashing us messages from the early universe,” said Lamb in the story.

Richard Epstein, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School, wrote an op-ed on the hazards of allowing lawsuits against HMOs that appeared in the Thursday, Oct. 28 issue of The Wall Street Journal. “Physicians who chafe under HMO practice restrictions, may cheer the HMOs’ pending demise. But their patients should be suspicious about this new celebration of physician autonomy and the familiar claims of inferior medical service,” wrote Epstein in the piece.

Emily Buss, Associate Professor in the Law School, wrote an op-ed about existing parental-rights laws and child-welfare services in the wake of recent decisions in the Baby T case. “To achieve the family permanence that is so essential for children, the system must be redesigned to operate as a coherent whole: Where a court concludes that termination is inappropriate, it should ensure that the process of re-establishing legal parent as acting parent happens swiftly, very swiftly.”

Rishi Bhat, a 10th-grader at the University Lab Schools, and his classmate Antonio Guillen––who together created the company SeigeSoft after developing the software and a Web site for a computer program to protect privacy on the Internet––were the subjects of a feature story published in the Friday, Oct. 22 Chicago Sun-Times. The two teen-agers sold their software to a Canadian company.