Notables

Nimat Hafez Barazangi, a visiting research fellow in the Women's Studies Program with a focus on self-identity and Muslim women's Islamic higher learning, will be one of the guests at a special reception to be hosted by the first lady at the White House today. The reception, "a family celebration with Hillary Rodham Clinton," will take place on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr (the end of the fasting month of Ramadan). The invitation was extended mainly to Muslim women leaders in the United States and their families, and it is sponsored jointly with the Muslim Women's League and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. This reception marks the second year in which the first lady is hosting a special celebration of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The White House recognition of the Muslim holidays in the United States is one way of recognizing Islam in the mosaic of the religious plurality of America, said Barazangi.

Professors of economics Tapan Mitra and David Easley have been elected fellows of the Econometric Society, an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics. Fellows are the governing body of the society and elect its officers, council and new fellows in annual elections conducted in the fall. Mitra, the chair of the department of economics at Cornell, is a prolific researcher who has been a leading figure in theoretical intertemporal economics. Easley, the H. Scarborough Professor of Social Science and director of the Center for Analytical Economics, is known for his research both in economic theory and in finance.