MATCH GAME:

ALUMNAE SUPPORTING SCIENCE

A major proviso governs the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Centers of Excellence grant for science at Barnard:

For every dollar the foundation delivers, Barnard must first raise three dollars from other sources. Over the next six years, Barnard must independently raise $9 million for its science programs in order to receive $3 million in Mellon funding and thus have $12 million dollars to spend on improvements—the renovation of aging labs, the endowment of more senior professorships, and an increase in start-up funds and other faculty support.

Several donors have already made gifts that qualify for Mellon Foundation matching funds. Among them are three Barnard graduates who went on to medical school and highly successful careers. All three are members of the Science Advisory Council, an alumnae group of physicians and researchers who meet periodically with President Judith Shapiro and other College leaders to discuss ways to advance the sciences at Barnard.

Hematologist Helen Ranney ’41, a leading expert on diseases caused by genetic blood disorders, is one of these benefactors. Early in her career, she published a landmark study on the relationship between sickle-cell anemia and Hemoglobin C, an abnormal form of hemoglobin. In the early 1970s at the University of California at San Diego, she was the first woman to chair a department of medicine in the United States.

Ranney says she entered college intending to become a lawyer, but was eventually influenced by Barnard classmates who were pre-med. She was also influenced by the results of an aptitude test that highlighted her scientific talents—talents that spurred the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons to award her a full scholarship. She received her medical degree in 1947, one of six women in a class of 113, and her strong interest in biochemistry led her to hematology.

Over the years, Ranney has helped finance the modernization of science facilities at Barnard. The Mellon Foundation will match her recent gift establishing The Helen Ranney ’41 Start-Up Fund for Newly Hired Faculty in the Sciences.

“Being competitive in the size of our start-up packages is key to our success in recruiting the best junior faculty,” says provost and dean of the faculty Elizabeth S. Boylan. “These funds are awarded for laboratory equipment suited specifically for the individual’s work, supplies that will enable the professor to get experiments up and running before they can get their own grants, computers, student assistance, technical support, and minor lab renovations.”

“Having been in an administrative position, I know start-up funds are essential when you try to recruit people,” Ranney says. “It can be hard to get gifted new people on your faculty.”

It’s fitting that, in overcoming this obstacle, Barnard has the help of a woman who herself surmounted daunting obstacles to rise to the top of her profession and make singular contributions to medical science. “If you don’t dwell on the difficulties, they don’t seem so big,” Ranney says.

Ellise Delphin ’71 is another alumna whose gift for faculty support will receive a Mellon Foundation match. Delphin, who chairs the department of anesthesiology at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, says that as a young woman she benefited greatly from the nurturing atmosphere at Barnard. She praises Barnard’s “community of women” inside and outside the classroom for providing her with the confidence to set high goals.

“Talented human beings are a college’s most important resource,” Delphin says of her motivation for establishing the Ellise S. Delphin Start-Up Fund for Newly Hired Faculty in the Sciences.

Like Ranney, Delphin studied medicine at Columbia. While the profession’s gender ratio was beginning to improve during the 1970’s, women still made up only 10 percent of Delphin’s class. “Now it’s 50 percent or higher at leading medical schools,” she says. “Women’s overall interest in science is much greater than it was 30 years ago, and science is more open to having women succeed.” She believes that as top colleges and universities increasingly compete for young women who excel in science, Barnard will attract these students only if it continues to build the faculty and update campus laboratories.

Michelle Friedman ’74 had another impetus for meeting the Mellon challenge: “I have tremendous admiration for President Shapiro, and I wanted to make a gift honoring what she’s done for Barnard.” Friedman earned her medical degree at NYU before completing advanced psychoanalytic training at Columbia. A psychiatrist in private practice, she also teaches at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and chairs the department of pastoral counseling at the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School.

Friedman says discussions with faculty members at Science Advisory Council meetings have shown her “how integrated the science curriculum is at Barnard today.” Examples of such integration, she says, are environmental policy courses that bridge natural science with social science and the humanities. She is also impressed by the advanced research she sees science majors pursuing.

Perhaps one day her daughter, Sarah, will engage in such research. Sarah was accepted to Barnard, and after taking a “gap year,” will join the class of 2012. During their time here, she and her classmates will see a substantial improvement in the science laboratories on campus—due in large part to the Mellon Foundation grant and the matching gifts it inspires.