With the Faculty
THE U. S. Office of Naval Research has named George Z. Dimitroff, Professor of Astronomy, to direct an observation station atop Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire, as part of a worldwide program to study the atomic content of the stratosphere. In connection with this, a Naval Reserve Research Unit has been activated at Dartmouth College and Professor Dimitroff, with the rank of Commander, USNR, has been appointed its commanding officer.
By means of a photo-electric photometer on top of the mountain, the luminosity of the night sky and the atom content of the stratosphere will be measured. The atmosphere at altitudes of from 200 to 300 miles above the earth will be studied two nights each month "during the dark of the moon," and additional research will be carried on at the College.
Cannon Mountain, site of the State's famous aerial tramway, was chosen because of its 4,000-foot altitude and the ease with which the top can be reached in both winter and summer. The station there will be identical to five others being established by the U. S. Office of Naval Research in California, Switzerland, the Pyrenees in France, the Belgian Congo and Australia.
AT the meetings of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni held at the Princeton Graduate College on December 30 and 31, Donald L. Stone, Professor of Government, was elected its first president.
The meetings were attended by about 250 former students of the Princeton Graduate School. Professor Stone, who took his Master's degree there in 1914, had been active in the formation of the Princeton Graduate College Pioneers, a social organization composed of men who were in residence between the opening of the Graduate College buildings in 1913 and the first World War. These pioneers provided the impetus to the founding of the present graduate alumni association.
An appraisal of the present objectives and methods of graduate study in American universities was a general theme of the December conference. Besides Professor Stone, Dartmouth was represented by Professor John H. Wolfenden of the Department of Chemistry, who led a panel discussion on the problems involved in specialized fields of graduate study.
AT the invitation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Louis L. Silverman, Professor of Mathematics on the Chandler Foundation, will attend the celebration of the 25th anniversary of its founding next April. He has also been asked to lecture at the Hebrew University, as well as at other educational institutions in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Professor Silverman, who has been granted second-semester leave to accept these opportunities, hopes it will be possible for him and Mrs. Silverman to live in one of the kibbutzim or agricultural settlements, which are an important development in the life of the new country. Mrs. Silverman plans to teach piano in one of the conservatories of music.
The buildings of the Hebrew University are on Mount Scopus, now in Arab territory and at considerable distance from the New City, occupied by the Israelis. The University has been carrying on its activities in buildings where space has been provided by Christian monasteries and Missions. It is likely that the anniversary celebration will take place in the improvised quarters, although there is a hope that the political-situation may be clearer by April, and that the festivities may take place in the University buildings.
Professor Silverman, an accomplished musician, will take along his viola "in the hope, that every amateur string player has, of being invited to join a local group in the performance of chamber music."
DANIEL MARX JR. '29, who recently returned to this country from an ECA assignment as Special Assistant to Averill Harriman in Paris, has been granted leave of absence from Dartmouth for the coming year in order to be a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. There he will work on the subject for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship last spring: the investigation and analysis of international shipping conferences. The maritime side of international trade has been his special field for a long timeHis work with ECA was concerned with East-West trade—trade between the countries participating in the Marshall Plan and Eastern European nations.
Shipping conferences are known to be among the oldest cartels in international trade. In the words of Professor Marx: "A reconsideration of this widespread institution is rendered necessary by the substantial changes that have occurred in the shipping industry It is proposed to ascertain if shipping conferences are still a necessity and if they continue to possess an inherent vice. If they are not necessary but harmful, the appropriate measures for their abolition will be explored. If, however, they are still found to be necessary and to possess monopoly powers, it is proposed to study how we can best live with them."
FREDERICK W. STERNFELD, Assistant Professor of Music, was elected to the Council of the American Musicological Society at the annual meeting held at the New York Public Library, December 28. He was also made Secretary of the Society for Music in the Liberal Arts College at its annual meeting held at Columbia University, December 30.
One of the interesting features of the Goethe Centennial celebration held at Dartmouth this fall was Professor Sternfeld's discussion of music and the poetry of Goethe. In the October issue of the Musical Quarterly, the lead article is by Professor Sternfeld, with the title; "The Musical Springs of Goethe's Poetry."
TWENTY-ONE members of the Dartmouth faculty are scheduled for sabbatical leaves the second semester, beginning this month. They are: Norman K. Arnold, Professor of Zoology; Leroy J. Cook, Professor of Romance Languages; Henry M. Dargan, Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory; Francois Denoeu, Professor of French; Joseph J. Ermenc, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Thayer School; Louis O. Foster, Professor of Accounting, Tuck School; John G. Gazley, Professor of History; Martin L. Lindahl, Professor of Economics; Robert A. McKennan, Professor of Sociology; Arthur B. Meservey, Professor of Physics; Alvin L. Pianca, Professor of Italian; Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Professor of Social Philosophy; James L. Scott, Professor of German; John B. Stearns, Professor of Greek and Latin; Wayne E. Stevens, Professor of History; Charles L. Stone, Professor of Psychology; Thomas H. Vance, Assistant Professor of English; Daniel Marx Jr., Professor of Economics; Louis L. Silverman, Professor of Mathematics; John V. Neale, Professor of Speech; and William A. Robinson, Professor of Government.
Nine other professors, on leave for the full academic year, will also be away during the second semester. Thirteen faculty members are resuming their teaching duties after first-semester leave.
NAVAL RESERVE RESEARCH UNIT ACTIVATED AT DARTMOUTH: Present for the occasion, December 13, were (I to r), President Dickey; Capt. C. I. Westhofen, USN, commander of the air branch. Office of Naval Research, Washington, D. C.; Comdr. George Z. Dimitroff, USNR, professor of astronomy at Dartmouth and commander of the new unit; Lt. Comdr. Sumner S. Atherton, USNR, of West Lebanon, N. H., executive officer of the unit; and Lt. Comdr. H. Wray Rohrman, USN, of the First Naval District, representing Capt. A. L. Pleasants, commander of the Boston branch, Office of Naval Research. Members of the new unit, which will keep naval reservists informed of the latest developments by the Office of Naval Research, include residents of Hanover, Lebanon, White River Junction, Windsor and Woodstock.
