Dark Matter

A follow-up on a blog post from last year...

According to The First Post:

"The release of a new Meryl Streep movie about a campus killing spree, which was postponed last year after the shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech, will not be delayed again – despite the recent spate of campus killings, including the gunning down of five students in a classroom at Northern Illinois University on St Valentine’s Day. Dark Matter is based on the true story of Gang Lu, a Chinese graduate student at the University of Iowa who shot and killed five people and paralysed another before killing himself in 1991. In real life, Lu's rage was fueled by his belief that he should have received honours for his doctoral dissertation that were instead awarded to a fellow student."

Here is a link to movie's website. (There is now a trailer that you can watch: Updated 7/29/08)

Thomas "Vandy" Vanderford, PhD

Belated, but sincere, congratulations to Vandy on the successful defense of his PhD thesis on August 13th. His dissertation is entitled "Adaptation of a diverse SIVsm population to natural and non-natural hosts". Vandy was a student in the Population Biology, Ecology & Evolution (PBEE) program at Emory University and he was jointly supervised by myself and Silvija Straprans. Even though I moved from Emory to Iowa in 2003, Vandy continued to work with me on the evolutionary aspects of his research on SIV. To make things happen, he travelled mutiple times to Iowa City and I went to Atlanta a few times, too.

Vandy gave a clear talk which was followed by some questions by the audience and commitee members. His post-seminar defense was rather short--his committee didn't even grill him! What a lucky guy. Afterwards, Vandy was treated to a reception hosted by the Vaccine Center (where Silvija's lab was located--she is now at Merck). After the festivities, Vandy and I spent the remaining afternoon celebrating over a few beers (picture above taken at that time) while listening to The Raconteurs. Later, accompanied by Vandy's girlfriend, Mitzi (who drove) we had dinner and a few more beers at the Brick Store Pub. I'm proud to add Vandy to my list of PhD grads. Congratulations, Dr. Vanderford!

Shehre-Banoo Malik, PhD!

Hearty congratulations are well in order for Banoo Malik, who successfully defended her PhD thesis last Thursday (June 14th). Banoo is the first student in my lab to both start and finish a PhD under my supervision. In her case, that entailed moving with my lab from Emory University to the University of Iowa. She has been a major player in my lab group and her work has made considerable, long-lasting impacts on the lab's research.

Banoo's dissertation, entitled "The early evolution of meiotic genes", is based on her in-depth analyses of the evolutionary histories of meiotic genes. She gave a really terrific talk on her work that led to a extensive series of questions from the audience. Banoo then successfully held court with her committee, who spent some of the time arguing amongst themselves on matters of scientific import (always a good thing in a defense!). The meeting was immediately followed by a celebration including bubbly liquid. On the following day, a party in her honor was held at my home. Good job, Banoo!

Dark Matter between students and mentors

I don't have alot to say about this yet, but there is a new film called Dark Matter that recently won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for science films at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It's based on a tragic story that happened here at the University of Iowa in 1991. Gang Lu, a physics PhD student shot and killed five people (including his advisor), seriously injured another and then killed himself. It's a harrowing case of conflict between mentor and student gone terribly wrong. There is an interesting article in the New York Times today about the new film and some of the realities of mentoring. I don't think that the film has screened in Iowa City yet, but I assume it will soon.

Image from the Dark Matter wikipedia site.