Immigrant Success

Your Ethnic Hoosier usually avoids policy, but this comment from Thomas Friedman's column in today's New York Times needs to be shared. As we in the Nationalities Council of Indiana know, the United States is constantly renewed --and improved -- by its immigrants. This says it all:

"Last week, the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships for 2011 were announced — America’s top college grads. Here are half the names on that list: Mark Jia, Aakash Shah, Zujaja Tauqeer, Tracy Yang, William Zeng, Daniel Lage, Ye Jin Kang, Baltazar Zavala, Esther Uduehi, Prerna Nadathur, Priya Sury, Anna Alekeyeva, Fatima Sabar, Renugan Raidoo, Jennifer Lai, Varun Sivaram."

Yes, Indiana's winner is Esther O. Uduehi (pictured, at left) of Evansville. Her parents emigrated from Nigeria. A senior at Indiana University, Bloomington, she majors in biochemistry and mathematics. She was also a visiting student at Oxford. A Wells Scholar, Presidential Intern and Senator Richard Lugar Scholar, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, she is president of the IU Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students. She has won several awards for her research in organic chemistry, and has participated in a U.S.-Russia global health care study program and done research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Esther plans to do the D.Phil. in chemistry at Oxford.

(Photo courtesy of Indiana University Bloomington)

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Science and Society in the 21st Century

"Science and Society in the 21st Century" is the topic for a presentation by Sir Harry Kroto (pictured), who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996.

He'll be speaking from 5:30-7 p.m. 10 November in Room CE450, Campus Center, Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis. Registration is online.

Kroto, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and holds an emeritus professorship at the University of Sussex in Brighton, United Kingdom, will discuss a necessary condition for creativity in the science and the arts -- a liberal/democratic sociopolitical environment.

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Indianapolis Prize Announced

Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton (center in photo) has been named the 2010 recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation. In recognition for his
lifetime achievements, Dr. Douglas-Hamilton will receive $100,000 and the Lilly Medal at a gala ceremony 25 September at The Westin Hotel, Indianapolis.

Born in Dorset, England, Douglas-Hamilton grew up in Constantia, Cape Town, South Africa, attended Gordonstoun School in Scotland and received his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. He currently works and resides in Nairobi, Kenya.

In 1993, Douglas-Hamilton founded Save the Elephants (STE) in Northern Kenya, in order to create an effective and flexible nonprofit dedicated specifically to elephants. The organization works to sustain elephant populations and preserve the habitats in which elephants are found, while at the same time fostering a heightened appreciation and visibility for elephants and their often fragile existence.

The biennial $100,000 Indianapolis Prize represents the largest individual monetary award for animal conservation in the world and is given as an unrestricted gift to the chosen honoree. The Indianapolis Prize was initiated by the Indianapolis Zoo as a significant component of its mission to empower people and communities, both local and global, to advance animal conservation. This biennial award brings the world’s attention to the cause of animal conservation and the brave, talented and dedicated men and women who spend their lives saving the Earth’s endangered animal species.

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Just Marketing International Expanding to Asia

Zionsville-based motorsports agency Just Marketing International plans to open an office in Asia later this year, reports Inside INdiana Business. JMI says it will announce the exact location soon and is currently looking for a vice president of Partnership Development Asia. JMI employs more than 140 people, operates six offices in four countries (England, Germany, Canada and the U.S.) and manages more than $300 million in annual motorsports investments.

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Eighteenth-Century Furniture Design

Just a few more days remain to see an exhibition of 18th Century Furniture Design at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road, Indianapolis, which closes on 21 February. It includes more than 30 eighteenth-century prints of furniture design from France, Germany and England as well as related pieces of furniture, all drawn from the IMA's permanent collection.

These prints provided models for individual craftsman or gentleman clients. They reflected current fashions ranging from the graceful, organic curves of the Rococo to the sober, geometric forms of Neoclassicism. Together with the furnishings, they illustrate the major stylistic developments of one of the most significant periods of European decorative arts. Some of the most famous authors of published manuals of furniture design are represented, including Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Conant Gallery.

(Image credit: George Hepplewhite, Double Chest of Drawers, 1787, engraving, Director’s Discretionary Fund, 73.2.125)

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An English Playright's Take on an Italian Feud

"Romeo and Juliet" by England's William Shakespeare opens Tuesday (19 January) at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, 140 West Washington Street, Indianapolis. The two residents of Verona, Italy, are literature’s most famous couple. As they struggle to find an oasis of peace amidst their warring families, old hates and tired prejudices are challenged by the eternal power of youth and love.

The play runs through 27 February. For tickets and information, log onto the website.

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Chamber Orchestra from London Set for April

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields will perform at 8 p.m. 10 April 2010 in Clowes Hall on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis as part of the Clowes Presents 2009/10 season. Tickets range in price from $20 to $35.

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields was founded by Sir Neville Marriner in 1958. Formed from a group of leading London (England) musicians and working without a conductor, the Academy gave its first performance in its namesake church on 13th November 1959. Demand for the Academy, particularly in the recording studio, soon began to grow as did the size of the orchestra and the repertoire it performed. Eventually Sir Neville was forced to put down his violin and take up the conductor’s baton, but the collegiate spirit and flexibility of the original small, conductorless ensemble remains an Academy hallmark. Today the Academy performs in combinations ranging from a chamber group to a symphony orchestra.

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World Mystery Confab in Indy

Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, is the largest annual meeting in the world for mystery lovers -- and the 40th edition takes place in Indianapolis Thursday through Sunday (15-18 October). The convention program includes panel discussions, lectures, and other presentations by mystery writers and experts on the genre, covering all aspects of mystery fiction, thrillers, detective stories, suspense novels, and more.

The 2009 Bouchercon includes special events throughout central Indiana, including programs at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the rotunda of Indiana's state house building, the Indianapolis City Market, and more.

The World Mystery Convention is named the Boucheron in honor of Anthony Boucher (1911-1968): "Boucher" plus "con" (short for convention). Anthony Boucher helped found the Mystery Writers of America, co-founded The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and reviewed mysteries in the Sunday New York Times Book Review. He wrote seven mystery novels and many short stories, along with many radio scripts for "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" and Sherlock Homes radio dramas.

If you'd like to attend, there are day passes and companion passes as well as all-session registration. The next Bouchercon, in 2010, will be held in San Francisco. Bouchercon has been held in cities across North America and, twice so-far, in England.

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The World Comes to Butler

“The World Comes to Butler” is the theme for the 2009-10 theater season at Butler University in Indianapolis. It opens with Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle on 7-11 October, followed by William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (11-15 November), Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (24-28 February) and a fourth production to be directed by Colombian-born Bernardo Rey (pictured), a visiting artist in residence next spring (14-18 April).

Indianapolis Prize Deliberations Begin

Nominations are now closed for the 2010 Indianapolis Prize, so the nominating committee (which narrows the field to six) and the jury (which selects the winner) are set to get to work.

Members of the nominating committee are:

•Devra G. Kleiman, Ph.D., zoologist and consultant on conservation projects worldwide who serves as Adjunct Professor for the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland and as Senior Scientist Emeritus for the Smithsonian Institution.

•Robert Lacy, Ph.D., population geneticist in the Conservation Biology department of the Chicago Zoological Society and faculty member on the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.

•Georgina Mace, Ph.D., director of the National Environment Research Council Centre for Population (Imperial College London); Fellow of the Royal Society; and former director of Science at the Zoological Society of London.

•James Murtaugh, program director of The Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation since 1991 and former curator at two of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s facilities - the Central Park Zoo and the Wildlife Survival Center on St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia.

•George Rabb, Ph.D., president emeritus of the Chicago Zoological Society; a spokesman on wildlife conservation issues worldwide; and former director (1976-2003) of the Brookfield Zoo.

•George B. Schaller, Ph.D., senior conservationist of the Wildlife Conservation Society and recipient of the 2008 Indianapolis Prize; a field biologist who studies wildlife throughout Africa, Asia and South America.

•Beth Cate, associate general counsel of Indiana University, where she also serves as adjunct faculty in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and a member of the Indianapolis Zoo Board of Trustees.

•Myrta J. Pulliam, director of special projects for the Indianapolis Star; past president of the Board of Trustees for the Indianapolis Zoological Society, Inc.; chair of the Indianapolis Prize; writer, reporter and editor, who also serves as a jury member.

•Jan C. Ramer, DVM, associate veterinarian at the Indianapolis Zoo and affiliated with the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine, Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians, and the Association of Avian Veterinarians.

•Denise L. Solso, active in community affairs, including the Indianapolis Zoo and Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Southwestern Art.

Members of the jury are:

•David Ehrenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., professor of biology at Rutgers Cook College; founding editor of Conservation Biology, and author of a number of books.

•John Flicker, Ph.D., president of the National Audubon Society, who has overseen the addition of more than two dozen Audubon Centers, including 10 in urban areas.

•David W. Macdonald, who heads the wildlife conservation research unit at Oxford University.

•Carter S. Roberts, president of the World Wildlife Fund.

•John W. Terborgh, Ph.D., research professor and co-director of the Center for Tropical Conservation at Duke University.

•Jeff Trandahl, executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

•William W. Chin, M.D., vice president of discovery research and clinical investigation at Eli Lilly and Company; a molecular endocrinologist and author/co-author of more than 270 papers, chapters and books.

•Christel DeHaan, philanthropist, founder of Christel House International and the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation; President and CEO of CD Enterprises, who is also an honorary chair of the 2010 prize.

•Paul Grayson, deputy director and senior vice president of science and conservation programs at the Indianapolis Zoo.

•Myrta J. Pulliam, who also serves as a nominating committee member.

The third biennial $100,000 Indianapolis Prize will be awarded in September 2010. It is the largest individual monetary award for animal conservation in the world. The Indianapolis Prize was initiated by the Indianapolis Zoo as a significant component of its mission to empower people and communities, both locally and globally, to advance animal conservation. It was first awarded in 2006 to Dr. George Archibald, the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation. In 2008, the Indianapolis Prize went to Dr. George Schaller, a field biologist and vice president of science and exploration for the World Conservation Society.

The Eli Lilly and Company Foundation has provided funding for the Indianapolis Prize since 2006.

The Honorary Chairs for the 2010 Indianapolis Prize are:

Cristal DeHaan (who also serves on the prize jury), actor Harrison Ford, writer Carl Hiaasen, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R.-Ind.), businessman Roger W. Sant and Bren Simon, businesswoman and civic activist.

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Students Learn Leadership in London

Seventeen Butler University students are visiting England, through 24 July as part of a new site-based course called "Leadership London", reports the Butler news bureau.

Taught by College of Business Dean Chuck Williams (pictured), the course focuses on leadership by utilizing the resources, institutions and history of London. Williams said he chose London for the course because its one of the largest financial centers in the world.

The city is also familiar to him because he taught a similar course for 12 consecutive years at his previous institutions, Texas Christian University and the University of the Pacific.

Follow their adventures in London through the Leadership London blog.

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LightBound Purchases London Company

Indianapolis-based LightBound has purchased a London, England, firm, reports Inside INdiana Business.

Global Network Operations Ltd. specializes in monitoring telecommunications systems throughout the world. LightBound Chief Operating Office Jack Carr says the purchase means the company, a unit of IQuest, will be monitoring global telecommunications backbones in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America from its Indianapolis data center.

LightBound is a locally owned IP Services Provider that offers dedicated leased lines with connections ranging from fractional T1s to gigabit speeds, collocation, web hosting, disaster recovery, cloud computing options, SIP trunking, VoIP PBX’s, business recovery services, and managed data center services.

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"Galileo" Comes to IUPUI

"Galileo" is a play celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s discoveries. Starring Tim Hardy from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, it explores the tensions between science and religion, and one man’s struggle for intellectual and spiritual salvation.

Presented by the Department of English in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, the Purdue University School of Science, and the IU School of Law (all at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis), it will be onstage at 7:30 p.m. 27 March in Room 152 of the Information and Communication Technology Complex, 535 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis.

Tickets are $15. For more information, contact Vicki Hale.

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Greek Mythology, Shakespeare and the IMA

Get KO’d by this last Saturday-of-the-month double feature film offering at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road, Indianapolis, that pairs two films for interesting reasons.

Black Orpheus (1959, dir. Marcel Camus, 107 mins) and William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996, dir. Baz Luhrmann, 120 mins) will be shown at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday (28 March).

As the IMA reports, "These two films share vivid, heart-pounding art direction, a theme of young love doomed, and classical literary origins. Black Orpheus reinterprets the Greek myth of Orpheus and celebrates the culture of Brazil.
"Luhrmann’s psychedelic, MTV-style Romeo + Juliet delights with an over-the-top sensibility."

Purchase tickets online, call 317:955-2339 or purchase at the door. Prices range from $5 to $13.

There will be a carnivale mask-making workshop for adults and children in the IMA’s Red Art Lab from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday (28 March).

The mask-making activity and Black Orpheus screening are co-presented by the Indiana/Rio Grande do Sul Chapter of Partners of the Americas and Maes Brasilaeiras.

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Indianapolis Opera Meets Pirate Demands

Besieged officials of the Indianapolis Opera have announced they have agreed to the demands of pirates who have surrounded its office by lowering the price of hundreds of tickets to $25 each.

Tickets that usually sell for as much as $70 have been reduced to $25, according to John C. Pickett, who serves as Major General of the company.

"The pirates demanded the lower prices because they haven't been able to visit Indianapolis since 1990. They want as many families to visit them as is possible," Pickett said.

One eyewitness described the pirate band as "poor, wandering ones" and stated she did not believe they would pose a threat at their upcoming public appearances on 13 March (8 p.m.) and 15 March (2 p.m.) at Clowes Memorial Hall on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis.

The pirates are believed to have come from the town of Penzance, a small port on the coast of Cornwall in southern Great Britain. However, they have roamed the world since 1879 when released by their benefactors William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

In a prepared statement, the leader of the pirate band said, "Better far to live and die under the brave black flag I fly, than play a sanctimonious part, with a pirate head and a pirate heart."

Ticket purchasers wishing to avoid pirate threats should instead visit the Clowes Hall box office, go online or call the Opera offices at 317:283-3470 as soon as possible, before pirates cut the telephone lines.

(If you didn't notice this was satire, you're not allowed to see a rolicking Gilbert & Sullivan operetta!)

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Kuijken visits UIndy for IBO concert

Baroque flutist and conductor Barthold Kuijken will perform at the University of Indianapolis as part of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra's concert tomorrow (23 February).

Kuijken, a native of Belgium and the IBO's new artistic director, will lead the orchestra in a program of music from the four principal nations of Baroque music: Italy (represented by the music of Corelli), France (Rebel and Campra), Germany (Handel) and England (Purcell).

"Les Nations" begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Ruth Lilly Performance Hall, Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, UIndy, 1400 East Hanna Avenue, Indianapolis.

Admission is $15; $10 students and seniors and free for UIndy faculty, staff and students. For tickets and additional information, call 317:202-0546.

Valpo Celebrates International Connections

Valparaiso University, which set a record for international student enrollment during the fall semester, will celebrate the culture and traditional foods of its diverse student body during the 29th annual World Banquet on 7 February.

The banquet (formerly known as the International Dinner) begins at 5 p.m. in Harre Union. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance from the University’s Office of International Programs. For details, go online or call 219:464-5333.

This year’s buffet-style dinner includes hummus; Baba Ghannouji; tabouleh; Greek Orzo salad; Thai iced coffee; Maraq Al-Bamiya; Chinese “Beggar’s Chicken”; baklava; “Noah’s Pudding,” and chocolate-dipped apricots. Recipes were submitted and selected by international students and will be prepared by Valparaiso’s Dining Services staff.

Following dinner, there's a talent show featuring some of the 245 international students from 55 countries attending Valparaiso, along with students from Valparaiso’s language clubs. Entertainment will include a fashion show displaying the ethnic dress of students’ homelands, musical performances, skits and dances.

The World Banquet is sponsored by the Office of International Programs and the Valparaiso International Student Association.

In 2008, Valparaiso was one of five institutions in the United States to win the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization and be cited as a model for other institutions of higher education is preparing students for a global economy and an interconnected world.

International students now make up more than seven percent of Valparaiso’s student body, and the University maintains Study Centers in China, England, Germany and Mexico and participates in 10 other study abroad programs which host approximately 200 students annually.

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Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival

Macbeth and more comes to South Bend next month with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival.

"Wicked Will: Shakespeare and the Supernatural" is the title of the presentation on 4 August. It's a collection of silly and scary vignettes that explore Shakespeare's interest in the supernatural -- and it's appropriate for children.

Macbeth, the shortest and "most ferocious" of Shakespeare's tragedies, plays 19-24 and 26-31 August.

For more information and to buy tickets, go to the website, send an email or call 574:631-BARD.

Mardirossian Joins IU School of Music Faculty

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has announced that violin virtuoso and world-renowned teacher of the instrument Kevork Mardirossian (pictured) will join the faculty this fall.

A former concertmaster of the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Mardirossian performed as concerto soloist and recitalist throughout Bulgaria, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before moving to Europe, where he developed an impressive solo career, with tours of England, Wales, Italy and the U.S., including debuts in London and New York's Carnegie Recital Hall in 1992.

He has appeared as guest artist at international music festivals in Cheltenham, England; the European Cultural Months; the International Chamber Music Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; the Czech Festival in Trento, Italy; and the Sofia Musical Weeks, Bulgaria.

Between 1988 and 1990, Mardirossian was concertmaster of the Baton Rouge Symphony, after which he was appointed artist-in-residence in violin at the University of Central Arkansas. In 1995, he was appointed as violin professor at the College of Music and Drama at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

As a member of the prize-winning Mardirossian-Phillips violin-piano duo, Mardirossian has toured the U.S., England, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Spain, Japan and China. Mardirossian is also a member of the Kapelle Piano Trio, with which he founded the Strings and Piano Chamber Music Festival in Heber Springs, Ark. He joined the faculty of the International Institute at Round Top, Texas, in 2001.

Mardirossian conducts violin master classes for advanced violinists in Bulgaria, held yearly in the D. Petkov Conservatory. He also presents regular master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Boston University, Longy College, Oberlin Conservatory, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Seville, Granada and Cadiz Conservatories in Spain, Shanghai Conservatory and Sofia Musical Weeks Festival Academy.

Indy Partnership in Western Europe

Members of The Indy Partnership are finishing up a week-long trade mission to England, France and Germany. Mike Dellinger, director of business development for The Indy Partnership, told Inside INdiana Business that the group focused on several sectors during the trip including life sciences, advanced manufacturing and information technology.