WFU in the news Jan. 24-30

FEATURED NEWS

WFU announces MLK Building the Dream award winners
By Laurie Willis | news.wfu.edu
Wake Forest has announced its 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. “Building the Dream” award winners. Congratulations to faculty and staff winners Danielle Parker Moore, an assistant professor of education and executive director of The Wake Forest Freedom School, and Ashley Hawkins Parham, Wellbeing Program manager. Bea Pearson, a senior history major and Jacob Thomas, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, are this year’s student winners. Winners will be recognized on Thursday, Feb. 3. – 1/27/2022

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

2nd trial in Floyd killing centers on clash of duty, code
By Kathleen Foody | Seattle Times
“We can’t stop and think it was just Chauvin,” said law professor Kami Chavis. “Typically, within a police department, it’s a small percentage of officers that are going to behave in that way. But when that small group is allowed to go unchecked, you are telegraphing to others what the culture is and that this is tolerated.” – 1/30/2022

Illegal gold mines flood Amazon forests with toxic mercury
By Warren Cornwall | Science Magazine
Los Amigos Conservation Concession might seem like a pristine wilderness. But, according to a new study, the forest is tainted by mercury at levels as high as those found in industrial regions in China. Previous tests found surprisingly low levels in the soils within deforested sites in the Madre de Dios region, said Luis Fernandez, a tropical ecologist and executive director of Wake Forest’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation, which was involved in the new study. – 1/28/2022

How to deal with microagressions in a group setting
By Cathy Krizik | Diversity Woman Magazine
When someone is on the receiving end of a microaggression in the workplace, they can feel demoralized and excluded. In fact, a study by researchers at North Carolina State and Wake Forest Universities found that being subject to microaggressions negatively affects job satisfaction. – 1/24/2022

Where mathematics and a social perspective meet data
Phys.org
Community structure, including relationships between and within groups, is foundational to our understanding of the world around us. New research by mathematics and statistics professor Kenneth Berenhaut, along with former postdoctoral fellow Katherine Moore and graduate student Ryan Melvin, sheds new light on some fundamental statistical questions. – 1/28/2022

Academic Influence spotlights over 600 Black scholars in 20 disciplines
Black Enterprise
Who are the top Black scholars in the most popular fields of study? More than 600 outstanding Black academics are featured in this series, covering 20 academic fields. “We want to ensure their achievements are recognized,” said Wake Forest physics professor and academic director of AcademicInfluence.com Jed Macosko. – 1/26/2022

How to manage fear around COVID while still saying safe
By Julia Ries | HuffPost
Since the start of the pandemic, the bulk of messaging about COVID has been extremely fear-based. Ultimately, you want to find meaningful activities you can engage in, with modifications when necessary, that can bring you comfort, joy and solace, said counseling professor Nathaniel Ivers, who specializes in terror management theory. – 1/29/2022

LOCAL

Triad Holocaust survivors reflect on Holocaust Remembrance Day
By Louie Tran | WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
“For me and many Jewish people throughout the nation, it’s not just a historic day and a day to remember, but it’s something personal,” said Levi Gurevitz, who’s been a rabbi at Wake Forest for more than two years. “We try to remember it so it doesn’t happen again. And if we don’t remember our history, it’s bound to repeat it.” – 1/27/2022

New Wake Forest program teaches students valuable lessons about history, humanity
By Tracy Clemons | WNCT-TV (Greenville, NC)
There’s something new happening at Wake Forest. It’s a new African American Studies program teaching students valuable lessons in history and humanity that they’re already using to make the community around them a better place. “I really enjoy learning material that challenges me as a person, not just intellectually but also my morals and seeing who I am and what my beliefs are,” said sophomore Olivia Snow. – 1/27/2022

4 N.C. business schools ranked among nation’s best
By Steve Doyle | WGHP-TV (High Point, NC)
Four schools are ranked among the nation’s best business schools in the annual survey from Poets & Quants, a San Francisco-based organization that has since 2014 evaluated the best undergraduate programs. Wake Forest is among them. – 1/27/2022

WAKE FOREST NEWS

Amazon forests poisoned by mercury from gold mining
By Cheryl V. Walker | news.wfu.edu
Wake Forest faculty in the University’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, and its Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA) are part of an international team of researchers who have discovered that gold mining in the Amazon rainforest is causing exceptionally high levels of mercury pollution in the old-growth rainforest near the mining sites. – 1/28/2022

WFU’s Slavery, Race and Memory Project holding spring lecture
By Laurie Willis | news.wfu.edu
Dorothy A. Brown, an Emory University professor of law, will deliver the Wake Forest University Slavery, Race and Memory Project’s annual spring lecture at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The virtual event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register for the event, click here. – 1/25/2022

Expert available: Supreme Court takes on federal water law case
By Cheryl V. Walker | news.wfu.edu
Stan Meiburg, former acting deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and director of Wake Forest’s graduate programs in sustainability, says the fact that the Supreme Court agreed to take the case – Sackett v. EPA – is significant. It is the most complex area of jurisprudence in all of environmental law. – 1/26/2022

WFU Theatre: ‘John Proctor is the Villain’ opens Feb. 4
By Kim McGrath | news.wfu.edu
Wake Forest University Theatre continues its season with “John Proctor is the Villain” by Kimberly Belflower. The play will be directed by Professor of Acting & Directing in Theatre Sharon Andrews. Performances are Feb. 4-5 and 10-12 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb 6 & 13 at 2 p.m. on the Tedford Stage of the Scales Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $15 adults, $12 senior citizens, and $7 students. – 1/28/2022

Face to Face with cellist Yo-Yo Ma
By Kim McGrath | news.wfu.edu
Yo-Yo Ma, Grammy award-winning cellist, cultural ambassador and U.N. Messenger of Peace will join the upcoming Face to Face Speaker Forum for an evening of conversation on Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. During the event, he will share his personal stories and vision for a better tomorrow along with musical interludes. The evening will be moderated by PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown. – 1/26/2022