PROFESSIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Gillian Conoley, English, Poet-in-Residence, has had a new book, Profane Halo, recently named one of the ten best books of poetry for 2005 by the Academy of American Poets. She read from Profane Halo at several venues in October and November, including The University of Iowa Writers Workshop on Oct. 6, The San Francisco LitQuake Festival on Oct.14, The Falkirk House in San Rafael on Oct. 20, Portland State University of Oct. 26, the Richard Hugo House in Seattle on Oct. 27, and Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles on Nov. 12.

Matt James, Geology, gave a research seminar titled "Collection Evolution" at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, on Nov. 17. The Darwin Station is located on the shore of Academy Bay, which was named in 1905 in honor of the schooner "Academy" by her 8-man crew, who were in the islands for a year-long expedition in 1905-06. Professor James is writing a history of that expedition, which was still in the islands on April 18, 1906, when the great San Francisco earthquake and firestorms destroyed the expedition's host institution, the California Academy of Sciences, along with much of San Francisco.