PCCW awards 6 research grants to CU women faculty members

The President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW), an alumnae group that serves as an advisory council to the university's president, has awarded its research grants for 2000 to six women faculty members.

The PCCW grants program was established nine years ago to help advance the careers of women in academia through support of research leading to tenure. This year, six recipients were chosen from 14 applicants to receive approximately $29,000 in grant funding. Previously, PCCW awarded $216,000 to 114 women; 85 percent of faculty recipients are still at Cornell, and several have moved up the tenure ladder.

In 1998, PCCW named the program the Affinito-Stewart Grant Program to honor the group's founders, Lilyan Affinito and Patricia Carry Stewart. Affinito, a 1953 graduate of Cornell, is former president of Simplicity Pattern Co. Inc. and was one of the first women to sit on multiple corporate boards. Stewart, a 1950 graduate, was vice president for finance and administration and secretary of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; she was one of the first women directors of a major corporation and is a trustee emeritus of Cornell.

Faculty members who received 2000 Affinito-Stewart grants from PCCW are:

• Lily Chi, assistant professor of art, for "A Study of the Elsa Gidoni and Charles Goodman Collections at the Design Archive."
• Helene Mialet, assistant professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, for "Stephen Hawking or the Anthropology of the Knowing Subject."
• Susan Quirk, assistant professor of animal science, for "Regulation of Apoptosis in Ovarian Surface Epithelial Cells by the Fas Antigen Pathway."
• Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, assistant professor of anthropology/Latino studies, for "Immediate Pasts, Forgotten Histories: Constructing Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Meaning."
• Z. Jane Wang, assistant professor of theoretical and applied mechanics, for "Computational and Modeling of Insect Flight."
• Kelly R. Zamudio, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, for "Patterns and Processes of Population Differentiation in Pond-breeding Amphibians."

PCCW was established in 1990 with the mission of advancing the involvement and leadership of women students, faculty, staff and alumnae. In March, PCCW celebrated its 10th anniversary with a three-day conference titled "Cornell Women: Celebrating Leadership." First lady Hillary Clinton presented a speech titled "Women in the 21st Century," and alumna Mae Jemison, M.D. '81, the first African-American woman to fly in the space shuttle, gave an address.

The PCCW has 332 members, invited by the Cornell president to serve three-year renewable terms. All current women trustees serve as ex-officio members.