Oct. 15, 2019: Yovanovitch ’80 Testifies on Capitol Hill; Alumni Author News

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Amb. Marie Yovanovitch ’80

U.S. Department of State via Wikipedia

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch ’80 testified in a closed session on Capitol Hill last week, explaining the circumstances of her recall from Ukraine, an episode that is under renewed scrutiny amid the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. — The New York Times
 
David Blatt ’81 resigned as coach of the Greek professional basketball team Olympiacos Piraeus months after announcing that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. — The Boston Globe
 
Rep. Terri Sewell ’86, a Democrat from Alabama, argued in a recent op-ed that President Trump, “by his own admission, has endangered our national security and the very foundation of our democracy.” — The New York Times
 
In the wake of the murder of 17-year-old Laquan MacDonald, Sharon Fairley ’82, former chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability for the city of Chicago, says that there’s much work to do in cases involving police brutality. — WTTW (Chicago)
 
In his new book, Information Wars, Richard Stengel ’77 situates North Korea’s 2014 hack of Sony and Russia’s 2016 hacks of the Democratic National Committee in a wider story of disinformation and global politics. — Vanity Fair

“I was very uneasy about going into cosmology because the experimental observations were so modest. …  The field grew, and I grew with it.”

— James Peebles *62, the pioneering cosmologist and Princeton professor emeritus who will share this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. Read more about Peebles’ contributions to his field in Science.

 Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer ’99 weaves together personal stories, metaphors, and research in his new nonfiction book, We Are the Weather, which aims to wake up readers to the dangers of global warming. — The Washington Post
 
Ecstasy of Terror: From the Greeks to Game of Thrones, Daniel Mendelsohn *94’s new collection of essays, shows that he “is either one of the great critics of our time or an unregistered cultural lobbyist sent from Mount Olympus,” according to reviewer Craig Taylor. — The New York Times
 
A new cover story in The Atlantic argues that Jeff Bezos ’86’s business ventures “are by now so large and varied that it is difficult to truly comprehend the nature of his empire, much less the end point of his ambitions.” — The Atlantic
 
Jordan Salama ’19 wrote about the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and his hometown of Pelham, N.Y., in a recent opinion piece. — The New York Times

Fourteen years after Christopher Simpson ’09 founded the community-based Contemporary Theater Company in his hometown of South Kingston, R.I., his passion project is expanding. — The Independent (R.I.)
 
Molly Schumer *16 was named a winner of the 2019 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award, which recognizes young women at the forefront of genetics research. — Genomics Research
 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Ana Cubas *96 to the California Law Revision Commission, which is responsible for recommending reforms to the state legislature. — Ca.gov
 
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra honored Curt Fields ’73 for his work to provide children in the Newark area with opportunities to engage with the arts. — New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

Former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Nicholas Rasmussen *90 was appointed acting director of the McCain Institute following the resignation of Kurt Volker, who recently stepped down as the United States’ special envoy to Ukraine. — Associated Press