In Short . . .   The Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra opened the yearlong Ithaca College Concerts series "Sounds of Home." The ensemble performed Karel Husa's "Pastoral" in a tribute to the former School of Music faculty member and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. . . . The Ithacan's former news editor and current special projects editor, Kelli B. Grant '04, was one of 14 students nationwide selected for the Associated Press's Diverse Voices/Diverse Visions program . . . . Biology majors Jessica Peacock and Danielle Federico, juniors and students of associate professor Jean Hardwick, presented research at the Society for Neuroscience conference on how neuropeptides regulate cardiac function. The trip was funded in part by the Jack and Flo Bernard Family Undergraduate Research Fund. . . . Associate professor of biology Susan Swensen was recently awarded a two-year, $72,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for her work with tropical fruit flies and rain forest cucumbers that serve as their hosts. The project will integrate faculty and student research with that of professionals from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Smithsonian Institution. . . . In October associate professor and chair of the cinema and photography department Janice Levy presented Out of Place: New Color Photography at the Handwerker Gallery. The collection of photographs was taken during her 2001 sabbatical in Madagascar. . . .

A. Ozolins, Ithaca College Office of Publications, 11 March, 2004