Faculty

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It is a brisk morning on the Illinois Wesleyan University campus. Two professors, Saloua Zerhouni and Driss Maghraoui, prepare for classes in an office on the first floor of the Center for Liberal Arts Building on Beecher Street.

“Is it usually this cold this time of year?” asks Zerhouni, the Fulbright Visiting Professor this fall at Illinois Wesleyan. Zerhouni’s husband, Maghraoui, smiles.

The weather today is colder than the mild temperature you could find this time of the year in Morocco, where Zerhouni and Maghraoui teach. She is an assistant professor of political science at the public Mohammed V University, Souissi, in Rabat; and he is an assistant professor of history at the private Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. They are teaching this semester at Illinois Wesleyan with the help of a grant from the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program. Though they have both worked in the United States before, this time is different.

The couple, who have been married since 2000, brought more than their academic expertise to Bloomington. They brought their family – Adam, age 7; Ayoub, age 4; and 11-month-old Nouha – in the hopes of creating a greater cultural understanding.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s Professor of Nursing Donna Hartweg will be honored as the recipient of the 2009 Illinois Nurses Association (INA) Nurse Educator Award.

The award, which honors an individual’s advancement of nursing education and commitment to serving as a role model for nursing students, will be presented at a banquet for state INA Conference in Lombard, Ill., on Oct. 16.

Hartweg, who joined the Illinois Wesleyan faculty in 1978, is the Caroline F. Rupert Professor of Nursing. She recently retired as the director of the University’s School of Nursing, a position she held from 1991 until August of 2009.

According to the INA, the Nurse Educator Award is only presented to those who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and service to the nursing program and to the community.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The school year is in full swing and students are aiming to make the best of their campus resources. At Illinois Wesleyan University one of these assets is The Ames Library, which offers a prime selection of well-known resources as well as some “hidden gems.”

The intellectual hub of the campus, The Ames Library is a five-story, 103,000 square feet building which houses approximately 335,000 items with access to 75 on-line databases, 1,100 journals in print and 33,000 journals online. The library also has seating for 500 readers and houses over 100 computer workstations as well as 16 study rooms. Yet some of the best gems are the people behind the desks.

According to University Librarian and Professor Karen Schmidt, one of the library’s best services is that it offers personal research assistance to all students.

“Library faculty provide in-depth research assistance for students and can be the untapped resource that moves a student to excellence and earning an ‘A’ on that challenging research assignment” said Schmidt. She encourages, “look for the AskAmes logo on the Web site or stop by the Information Desk to find out how to access this free and valuable resource.”

The library also offers informational sessions for classes, such as Gateways, to introduce students to the many services provided. Academic Outreach Librarian and Associate Professor Lynda Duke leads many of these sessions. They include introductions to library resources and services, as well as an introduction to the research process.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Faculty Biennial Exhibition will be on display from Oct. 6 through Nov. 5 at Illinois Wesleyan’s Merwin & Wakeley Galleries. The galleries are located in the Ames School of Art building (6 Ames Plaza West, Bloomington).

An opening reception will be held in the galleries on Tuesday, Oct. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. This exhibit, held every other year, offers a unique opportunity for the Illinois Wesleyan School of Art faculty to show their latest work to IWU students and the University community.

Regular gallery hours are from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7-9 p.m. on Tuesday evenings and 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. All Merwin & Wakeley Gallery events are free and open to the public. Extended hours for Homecoming Weekend are Saturday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 11 from 11 to 5 p.m. As part of the homecoming festivities, a special reception for IWU Alumni will be held in the galleries on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Edgar Lehr, assistant professor of biology at Illinois Wesleyan University, is part of a duo that recently discovered three new species of frogs living in the forests of southern Peru.

Lehr and his partner, Swiss-Peruvian ecologist Alessandro Catenazzi from the University of California at Berkeley, have worked together to uncover more than 10 new species of amphibians. “We should know what else is living on our planet,” said Lehr, who noted scientists estimate there are between 5 million to 100 million organisms on Earth, with only about 2 million classified. “So we are far from a true understanding of the complete planet.”

The three recently discovered species are excellent examples of the diversity of amphibians, according to Lehr. All three new species – Bryophryne hanssaueri, Bryophryne gymnotis, and Bryophryne zonalis – actually do not have a tadpole phase. “Every school child learns that frog eggs turn into tadpoles, but across the globe, there are frogs who carry eggs on their back, or in pouches on their back. There was even a frog in Australia that swallowed eggs to let them develop inside her stomach,” he pauses and smiles. “Can you tell I love frogs?” With their discovery, there are now six known Bryophryne species.

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