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Mary Levin

Halloween cut-ups
From left, Joan Campbell, Amy Lopez Finol and Kira Thomsen-Cheek clown around while carving pumpkins for the UW Medical Center’s annual pumpkin carving contest. The pumpkin on the left, which reads “Free the chimp,” refers to a stuffed chimp that the women’s unit passes along to the team member who wins a monthly award. The chimp, it seems, has been kidnapped by a prankster. The wanted poster in the background is for the chimp. These pumpkin carvers work for the CHARMS project designing the Clinic and Hospital Access and Revenue Management System. Pumpkins will be judged on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 29 and 30.

VOLUME 27, NUMBER 5 | 10/29/2009 – 11/4/2009 | UWEEK.ORG

Help recognize excellence: Nominations now open for a host of annual awards
Every day you work alongside faculty, staff and graduate students who are fabulous at what they do and every year the University honors some of them with awards. Now, here’s your chance to help choose the people who win those awards.

Faculty Senate holds first meeting; chair sees crowded agenda for the year
New Faculty Senate Chair Bruce Balick discusses the many issues before the group for this school year. The first Faculty Senate meeting is today.

Nominations open for UW Health and Safety Committees — with changes in election process
Employees who serve on the UW Health and Safety Committees help ensure the safety of everyone in the campus community — and nominations are now open for the next two-year committee terms, which will begin on Jan. 1, 2010.

Service Employees Opportunity Fund already paying off in scholarships, now part of CFD
When UW retirees Jerri McCray and Helen Remick established the Service Employees Opportunity Fund, they hoped to help the University’s lowest-paid employees or their children to get an education. Now the fund has awarded six scholarships and is included on the Combined Fund Drive’s list of charities.

Annual fright delight: Spo-o-o-o-ky organ music on Oct. 30.
The Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall will reverberate with the sounds of spooky organ music when students of Carole Terry perform the beloved annual concert of organ classics on the UW’s Littlefield Organ at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 30.

Cell phones become handheld tools for global development
Computer scientists at the UW are using Android, the open-source mobile operating system championed by Google, to transform a cell phone into a flexible data-collection tool. Their free suite of tools, named Open Data Kit, is already used by organizations around the world that need inexpensive ways to gather information in areas with little infrastructure.

Fortuitous research provides first detailed documentation of tsunami erosion
The earthquake-generated waves of tsunamis can engulf low-lying land and bring widespread destruction and death. But now, for the first time, a group of scientists has documented the scope of tsunami-caused erosion, finding that a wave can carry away far more sand and dirt than it deposits.

Study finds significant regional variations in access to burn centers
Matthew Klein, UW associate professor of surgery, leads a study that may help improve patient access to verified burn centers by ground and air transport.

First evidence for a second breeding season among migratory songbirds
Biologists for the first time have documented a second breeding season during the annual cycle of five songbird species that spend summers in temperate North America and winters in tropical Central and South America.

What's happening at Fern Lake? Help identify this week's Lost and Found Film
This week's fim features a warning about "radioactive materials," the mixing of chemicals and views through a microscope of lake water critters. But what's it all about?

Etc.: Campus news & notes
An award for the Japan Studies Program, Custodian Lead Alfredo (Fred) Valdez is runner-up in international "unsung hero" competition and Ione Fine is elected a fellow of the Optical Society of America.

Staffer joyfully gives to CFD-funded agency that supported relative
Virginia Groesbeck of UW Bothell knows the help Combined Fund Drive-supported agencies can provide. She writes of how the agency helped her brother-in-law, who had Down syndrome, start "living" again.

Official Notices
Faculty Senate vice chair nominations, research funding available and the UW's non-discrimination policy.

Pathologist learns meaning of ‘physician, heal thyself’
Kimberly Allison, director of the UW Medicine Breast Pathology Service, gets a reality check when she is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Big Apple bound: Two UW runners take on New York City Marathon Nov. 1
Admissions Specialist Annabelle Allen and graduate student Angela Abel met and became friends 10 years ago when they were in the same Freshman Interest Group. Now they’re running the New York City Marathon together.

Preventable death study wins best medical paper competition
A study on preventable causes of death by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the UW and Harvard University was named best open-access medical paper by the journal PLoS Medicine.

Gates Foundation officer headlines postdoc symposium
The UW Postdoctoral Association will host its fifth annual research symposium from 2 to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in the Walker Ames Room, Kane. The keynote speaker is Christine Rousseau, program officer in HIV prevention at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Disney offers refunds for Baby Einstein products
Media outlets have reported that the Walt Disney Company will refund parents the purchase of up to four "Baby Einstein" videos. A couple of years back, UW researchers showed that the DVDs marketed as boosting infants’ language learning were actually detrimental.

Answer the call to service: Sign up to lead a project for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
Project leaders are needed for the ninth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, to be held Jan. 18, 2010.

International multicultural education is subject of conference, book
International multicultural education will be the theme for a daylong conference at the UW Friday, Oct. 30, that will also be a book launching event for The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education, edited by the UW's James Banks.

Award winning journalist to speak on the ‘new’ polluters
Once upon a time, big industry was the villain in the fight against pollution. These days we’re all implicated. Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and editor and Emmy Award-winning producer/correspondent, will speak on Who Are the New Polluters at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3 in 130 Kane.

Early Childhood Oral Health program tackles dental disease locally and internationally
Joel Berg, UW professor and chair of pediatric dentistry, and First Lady of Peru Pilar Nores set a goal of alleviating dental disease in children of the Andes Mountains.

Tumor Vaccine Group holds annual open house, Nov. 5
The UW Medicine Tumor Vaccine Group's open house will include an update on the latest research, patient discussion of clinical trials, and tours.

Now hear this: Monthly 'Ear-Responsible' hearing clinics, starting Nov. 2
You can learn about today’s hearing aid options at "Ear-Responsible?” an informational seminar about hearing loss and hearing aids the first Monday of each month, sponsored by the Speech & Hearing Clinic.

Sherlock Holmes. Join the iconic literary detective as he and his faithful sleuthing partner, Dr. Watson, face danger in the last case of his illustrious career. Guaranteed to be an enjoyable trip through the rich world of 212-B Baker Street.
Through Nov. 1, Hutchinson Cabaret Theater.

Chinese Film Week. Screening and discussion of Chinese films as part of the ongoing celebration of 30 years of U.S.-China relations.
Through Oct. 31, 220 OUGL.

Chinese acrobats. Thirty-eight award-winning performers from China's national acrobatic Troupe, astounding audiences with their phenomenal prowess and artistry.
7:25 p.m., Meany Theater.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). In collaboration with La Raza Commission and other Latino organizations, the Ethnic Cultural Center hosts this annual event. Dia de los Muertos is an ancient Aztec celebration of the memory of deceased ancestors. Some highlights include face painting, decorating sugar skulls, making flore de muerto and enjoying Mexican hot chocolate and pan dulce.

7-9 p.m., Ethnic Cultural Center.

Vogler Quartet. Founded in East Berlin in 1985 and still going strong with its original members. In honor of their 25th anniversary and in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the quartet will perform The Zimro Project for their long-overdue UW World Series debut.
8 p.m., Meany Hall.

Can you guess where this photo was taken? Guess correctly, and you might win a gift certificate to the University Book Store!