Awards program is named in honor of alumnae Lilyan Affinito and Patricia Carry Stewart

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 1999 research grants to four women faculty members and six graduate students.

The PCCW grants program was established eight years ago to help advance the careers of women in academia through support of research leading to tenure, promotion and the completion of dissertations. This year, 10 recipients were chosen from 67 applicants to receive approximately $25,000 in grant funding; faculty received two-thirds of the funding. Previously, PCCW awarded $191,000 to 104 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 1999 Affinito-Stewart grants from PCCW are:

  • Sarah Billington, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, "Structural Joint Characterization for Advanced Simulation of Concrete Structures."
  • Sheila S. Hemami, associate professor of electrical engineering, "Presenting Video Compression Research at IEEE-ICIP '99, Kobe, Japan."
  • Annette Richards, assistant professor of music, "Recording Project: The Complete Organ Music of Melchior Schildt on the Raphaelis Organ at Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark."
  • Amy Villarejo, assistant professor of women's studies and theatre, film and dance, "Manuscript Revision: Lesbian Rue: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire."

Ph.D. candidates who received 1999 grants are:

  • Laura Aldrich-Wolfe, ecology and systematics, "Role of Mycorrhizal Fungi in Determining Establishment Success of the Tropical Tree Terminalia Amazonia in Former Pastures of Southern Costa Rica."
  • Melanie Jacqueline Filotas, entomology, "Assessing Pathogenicity of the Fungus Furia Crustesa, a Potential Biological Control Agent of the Forest Tent Caterpillar, Malacesona Disstria."
  • Sondra Leslie Hausner, anthropology, "Ascetic Aesthetics: The Body in Sadhu Society."
  • Jennifer Long, plant breeding, "Improving the Nutritional Quality of Maize: Consumer Perspectives in Zimbabwe."
  • Cherene Monique Sherrard, English, "She Is No Whiter Than You See: Visual and Narrative Representations of the Mulatta Figure in Harlem Renaissance Literature and Culture."
  • Stephanie TerMaath, civil and environmental engineering, "Fracture Analysis of Interacting Multiple Cracks Propagating Within Multiple Site Damage Zones in Aging Aircraft."

PCCW was established in 1990 with the mission of advancing the involvement and leadership of women students, faculty, staff and alumnae. There are 332 members, invited by the Cornell president to serve three-year renewable terms. All current women trustees serve as ex-officio members. The group has undertaken numerous projects to expand the role of women at the university and provide greater involvement for alumnae. Among its activities are providing significant ongoing commitment for women athletes (including support for the women's softball field).

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