Monday, May 22, 2000
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Symposium honors late professor’s contributions to science
When Lois Miller was dying last fall, she asked that there be no funeral or memorial service, but friends asked the noted UGA scientist if she’d sanction a research symposium in her honor. She agreed, and the result is a major conference that will attract scientists world-wide to campus May 26-28.
All presentations at the symposium, which will be held in room C-127 of the life sciences building, will be open to the public.
“She was an amazing person,” says Jan Westpheling, a colleague in the genetics department. “She was unpretentious, self-effacing and very soft-spoken, but when it came to science, she could be tough as nails. She was one of the most rigorous thinkers I’ve ever met. This symposium is to honor her contributions to science.”
Miller, 54, was Research Professor of Genetics and Entomology at UGA and one of nine active or retired UGA faculty members elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can attain. She was one of the world’s leading experts on the use of insect viruses for controlling agricultural pests. She died Nov. 9 following a long illness.
A number of noted scientists will be attending the meetings here, which will begin May 26 with a reception at 6 p.m. in the lobby of the life sciences building. Organizers for the event include Karl Espelie and Mike Adang in the department of entomology and Katherine Spindler and Westpheling from the department of genetics.
The first speaker, at 7 p.m., will be Carol Prives, Da Costa Professor of Biology at Columbia University. She is currently editor of the journal Virology and has published numerous influential studies on the most commonly mutated gene in human cancers. She will be followed at 7:45 by Paul D. Friesen, a former student of Miller’s and now a professor in the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a leader in the study of programmed cell death or apoptosis.
Speakers on May 27 include Eileen White, a professor at Rutgers University who is a much sought-after speaker in the field of programmed cell death; Bernard Moss, chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, widely considered one of the leading virologists in the world; and Brian Frederici, professor of entomology at the University of California-Riverside and a leading researcher in the use of viruses as safe alternatives to chemical pesticides.
The symposium will close on Sunday morning with a speech from David O’Reilly of Imperial College in London. O’Reilly, another former student of Miller’s, co-authored a laboratory manual with her on the use of insect viruses as expression vectors. Miller was a pioneer in this field and was credited with the invention of baculoviruses as tools for the expression of many proteins, including many used in human medicine.
Numerous shorter presentations between the major speeches will be delivered by noted scholars and scientists from around the country, many of whom knew and worked with Miller. A number of former students will be present.
“Throughout her career, Lois always showed a great deal of concern for the welfare of the students and post-docs who worked in her laboratory,” says Karl Espelie, her husband and a colleague in the department of entomology. “When they were ready to move on, Lois also did all she could to help these people find good positions and have successful careers. She was very proud of the achievements of the people who had spent time in her laboratory. Lois would have been very touched to know that so many former members of her lab and so many former colleagues feel that she had a positive impact on their research careers. The symposium will provide an opportunity for many of these people to remember her as a close friend, as a valued colleague and as an excellent scientist. The list of speakers for the weekend symposium is very impressive. The science that will be presented will be first rate. Lois would expect nothing less.”
Miller, who joined the UGA faculty in 1986, conducted ground-breaking research on the molecular genetics of insect viruses. Her work had an impact on many areas of basic and applied biology. One result of her research was development of genetically improved viruses for pesticides that control harmful pests but have minimal effects on beneficial insect species.
She was also noted for research on a biological process known as programmed cell death, asking why cells die in animals and plants. Miller and her students discovered two classes of genes that could help inhibit programmed cell death, which has been implicated in the development of many human diseases, including cancer and AIDS. Her research was supported by several million dollars in grants from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as more than $1.2 million in research contracts from several multinational corporations. She held a number of patents for her work.
“People have called from around the country asking if they could come just to honor Lois,” says Westpheling. “It’s a wonderful tribute to the person and the scientist that Lois was. The science that will be presented here will be spectacular. Lois would have been very pleased.”
--Phil Williams
Atelier 17
The Georgia Museum of Art is exhibiting prints from the Paris studio Atelier 17/Contrepoint beginning May 30. Stanley William Hayter (1901-88), founder of Atelier 17 and a legend in contemporary printmaking, inspired artists who transformed the antique graphic medium of intaglio into a modern tour de force. Born in London, Hayter studied chemistry and geology; in the early 1920s, he went to work in the oil fields of Persia. A successful exhibition of his paintings encouraged him to pursue a career as an artist. In 1927, Hayter opened his own studio at 17 Rue Campagne-Premier in Paris, which he eventually opened to other artists.
Hayter pioneered many printmaking techniques. Complex color work in prints is often achieved by Hayter’s method of combining several colors upon the surfaces of a copper plate, a practice referred to as “viscosity” printing. Hayter called this technique “simultaneous color printing,” since it produced a multicolored image with a single pass of the plate through the press.
When Hayter died, his assistants--Hector Saunier, from Argentina, and Juan Valladares, from Venezuela--inherited the studio as co-directors and renamed the shop Atelier Contrepoint. This exhibition reflects the versatility in printing techniques and the variety of images created by artists who have come from all over the world to work at the studio.
--Jennifer Zaltman
Georgia Museum offers exhibition of collaborative art
Artistic creativity is traditionally considered the product of an extraordinary individual’s solitary struggle for self-expression. Since the 1970s, on the other hand, collaboration in the conception, production and credit for art has become more common and widely accepted. While many artist-couples choose to continue solo careers, preserving their professional names and nurturing their individual reputations, a growing number work collaboratively.
The Georgia Museum of Art will display works by five such couples in the exhibition Collaborating Couples, opening June 3 and running through Aug. 6. The five couples all live near Athens; only one couple is from out of state. The couples all work in different media. Some have never before collaborated while others always work together.
The exhibition demonstrates several aspects of collaboration in the opening years of the millennium, from multi-media and complex technology to traditional ceramics and painting. The result is a rich blend of media and styles that breaks new aesthetic ground, challenges the viewer and explores aspects of the role of the individual within a communal situation in an increasingly pluralistic society.
The five couples are David and Lizzie Zucker Saltz, who create interactive performance art with computers and video; sculptors Jim Buonaccorsi and LeeAnn Mitchell; graphic designer, printmaker and photographer Susan Roberts and potter Michael Simon; Deborah McClary and Hunt Clarke, who make installations that include sculpture, photography and wood carving; and writer Philip Auslander and printmaker Deanna Sirlin.
--Jennifer Zaltman
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