LAURELS

BIG EAST COMMISSIONER MIKE ARESCO, A72, F73, has been named commissioner of the Big East athletic conference. The appointment was made by a unanimous vote of the league’s university presidents. The former executive vice president of programming at CBS Sports, Aresco started his new job in September. The Big East is becoming the first truly national NCAA Division I conference, with football-playing member schools in all four time zones and many institutions located in the nation’s top media markets.

COURTHOUSE DEDICATION The district courthouse in Quincy, Massachusetts, has been renamed for FRANCIS X. BELLOTTI, A47, H79, whose public service career in the state spanned more than sixty years, including terms as lieutenant governor and attorney general. “The dedication of this courthouse is a great way to honor a man who has committed himself to serving others,” said Francis O’Brien, chairman of the Norfolk County Commissioners, the body that renames county buildings.

NEW ADVISORS DANIEL V. BYRNE, E76, chief technology officer of Byrne Thermodynamic Systems (and, coincidentally, the subject of “Line in the Sand”); MARK P. KESSLEN, E66, a partner with the business law firm Lowenstein Sandler and chair of its intellectual property section; and MARK M. MARTIN, G90, E13P, vice president of the MEMS/Sensors Group at Analog Devices Inc., have been appointed to the Board of Advisors to the School of Engineering. WILLARD H. DERE, M12P, senior vice president and global chief medical officer of Amgen Inc., and DAVID S. ROSENTHAL, M63, J87P, G88P, director of the Harvard University Health Services, are new advisors to the School of Medicine. University Trustee ALFRED TAUBER, A69, M73, is now a member of the International Board of Advisors. He is the Zoltan Kohn Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine and professor emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences of Boston University.

VISITING PROFESSOR IN U.K. DANIEL C. DENNETT, University Professor and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts, has been appointed a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities, which welcomed its inaugural class of students to its London campus this fall. Dennett, who codirects Tufts’ Center for Cognitive Studies, will contribute to the development of the college, particularly in philosophy. He will also participate in the college’s professorial lecture program, and is scheduled to give his first series of lectures beginning in January.

TOP TEACHER SHIRA FISHMAN, E01, a math teacher at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C., received a Milken Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation. Established by the education reform leader Lowell Milken, the award celebrates exemplary teachers in kindergarten through grade twelve. It comes with a no-strings-attached cash prize of $25,000. A year ago, Fishman was named District of Columbia Public Schools Teacher of the Year.

MEDICAL ETHICS AWARD JOEL FRADER, M74, professor of pediatrics and of medical humanities and bioethics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is the recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2012 William G. Bartholome Award for Ethical Excellence. Frader became interested in medical ethics nearly forty years ago while he was an undergraduate and working part-time as an orderly at New York–Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, where he was struck by the disparities in the way staff treated patients. His research interests include end-of-life care for children, the bioethics of organ transplantation, children with disorders of sex development and gender identification nonconformity, and allocation of health-care resources for children.

DENTAL ACADEMIC DEAN NADEEM KARIMBUX is the new associate dean for academic affairs at Tufts School of Dental Medicine, with an academic appointment in the Department of Periodontology. He had served as assistant dean for dental education at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He was recently appointed editor of the American Dental Education Association’s Journal of Dental Education.

HONORARY DEGREE ROBERT L. NORTON, G70, the Milton Prince Higgins II Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, received an honorary doctorate in engineering during WPI’s 144th commencement ceremony on May 12. “As an engineer and an educator, Robert Norton has always found a way to maintain a careful balance between theory and practice,” his honorary degree citation said. Norton, who received his master’s in engineering design from Tufts, holds thirteen patents and is the author of three textbooks, which have been widely translated.

THEATER MENTOR LAURENCE SENELICK, the Fletcher Professor of Oratory, is the 2012 recipient of the Betty Jean Jones Award as Outstanding Teacher of American Theatre and Drama, presented by the American Theatre and Drama Society. The award recognizes university teachers and scholars who have served as mentors in the profession.