Good researchers are good storytellers, Harlan says in keynote

Marc Zimmer and Sunil Bhatia

CC’s most prestigious faculty awards, one for research and the other for teaching, were presented to Marc Zimmer and Sunil Bhatia during the College’s 91st convocation on Sept. 1.

Zimmer, the Barbara Zaccheo Kohn ’72 Professor of Chemistry, was given the 2005 Nancy Batson Nisbet Rash Faculty Research Award and Bhatia, associate professor of human development, received the John King Faculty Teaching Award.

Lindsey Harlan, professor of religious studies and recipient of the Rash award last year, delivered the keynote address at the ceremony marking the beginning of the academic year.

Research, Harlan said, is ultimately about storytelling. It’s about delving into a favorite topic and telling others about it.

“As I assign my students research projects and struggle to get them to formulate proposals, develop hypotheses and organize their arguments, I hope that they will soon have some good stories to tell me,” Harlan said. “I hope that for them, as for us faculty, research will seem not something they have to do but something they get to do. I hope that for them research will be, as it is for me, the icing on the cake.”

Zimmer joined CC in 1990 and specializes in inorganic computational chemistry. His book, “Glowing Genes: A Revolution in Biotechnology,” published this year, is the first popular science book on jellyfish and firefly proteins, which can help fight cancer, create new products, improve agriculture and combat terrorism.

Bhatia joined CC in 1999. His research focuses on the development of self and identity within the context of postcolonial migration, globalization and formation of transnational diasporas. He is finishing his forthcoming book, “Terms of Difference: Culture, Identity and the Indian-American Diaspora,” which is based on an extensive, two-year ethnography of the Indian diaspora in southern Connecticut.

Nancy Rash was the Lucy C. McDannel ’22 Professor of Art History and taught at CC from 1972 to 1995. She was known for her energy, her support for students, and her love of art. Her father, General Dillman Rash, and her husband, Frank Turner, Yale University Professor of History and a CC trustee, established the research award in her name.

The late John S. King was a beloved professor of German who taught at CC from 1971 to 1995. He was known for his unfailing grace, natural courtesy and generous spirit. The award in his name was established by friends, colleagues and former students.