Cancer survivors and local and state officials celebrated along with NIU at an official groundbreaking held June 19 for the $159 million Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center.
The event was held at the center’s future site at 777 Discovery Drive in the DuPage National Technology Park, about 30 miles west of Chicago.
The state-of-the-art Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center will offer proton therapy, an advanced and highly effective form of radiation therapy currently unavailable in Illinois. The noninvasive therapy is the treatment of choice for certain pediatric and adult cancers.
NIU has played a leading role in development of plans for the center, which is scheduled to begin treating patients in 2010.
“Two years from now, patients at the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center will benefit not only from advanced cancer treatment, but also from the many proton therapy-specific nursing, education and allied health programs under development at NIU,” said NIU President John G. Peters.
“This project illustrates the power of cross-disciplinary research and multi-institutional partnerships,” he added. “Combining the strengths of well-respected programs in physics, the health sciences and regional outreach, NIU has been the catalyst for groundbreaking discussions and agreements between and among dozens of clinical, regulatory and business partners throughout the Chicagoland region.”
Construction of the 110,000-square-foot facility will commence on 15 acres in the DuPage National Technology Park. The park is contiguous to the northern boundary of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which assisted in building and assembling the country’s first hospital-based proton treatment system for Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. Its proton therapy center opened in 1990.
The non-profit Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center will boast space for research, training and education purposes, four separate treatment rooms and two 190-ton gantries, each able to rotate around the patient, delivering proton beams at optimal angles. The proton beam will be generated by a high-tech particle accelerator, housed in a facility the size of a football field.
“Today we celebrate the birth of a new resource where professionals from many different fields will advance science, create new jobs and improve quality of life for countless individuals,” said Cherilyn G. Murer, chair of the NIU Board of Trustees. “The Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center will save lives, but it will also make new discoveries, train new medical professionals and provide countless new opportunities for those who have dedicated their lives to the healing arts.”
The proton therapy center initially will employ about 50 professionals. The number of employees is expected to triple when the center is at full operations, with a capacity to treat as many as 1,500 patients a year.
Proton therapy derives advantages from its precision. Conventional radiation often radiates healthy tissue in its path and surrounding the tumor site. In contrast, doctors can deposit protons within tumors while sparing adjacent healthy tissues and organs. Patients experience minimal side effects.
“We can aim proton beams and shape them in all three dimensions to within millimeters of accuracy, allowing us to treat tumors with far greater precision and far greater savings to normal tissue than with conventional therapy,” said Dr. Allan Thornton, medical director of the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, Ind., and medical adviser to the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center.
The unique characteristics of proton therapy make it a preferred treatment option in many cancers, including pediatric varieties, where traditional radiation can damage developing healthy tissue. The new center will deliver proton therapy for the treatment of pediatric, prostate and head/neck cancers, as well as for treatment of patients suffering from certain ophthalmologic disorders.
While proton therapy is covered by numerous insurance plans, including Medicare, there are only five full-scale proton centers operating nationwide. Patients often travel hundreds or thousands of miles to receive the treatment.
“Right now, patients from Illinois who are in need of this treatment must travel out of state for extended periods of time,” said John Lewis, the newly named executive director of the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center. “The new center will bring this tremendous resource to cancer patients in Illinois and nearby states, and it will place Chicagoland at the cutting edge of proton therapy delivery services, training and education.”
The Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center, LLC, is a spin-off company of the Northern Illinois Research Foundation.
The Board of Managers for the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center, LLC, has named John Lewis as the center’s executive director.
Over the past three years, Lewis has served as the proton therapy project manager, overseeing its planning.
“John Lewis is incredibly knowledgeable about proton therapy, has a depth of expertise in the health care industry and has championed community engagement throughout his career at NIU,” said NIU Provost Raymond W. Alden III, a member of the proton center’s Board of Managers. “He is supremely qualified to serve as the center’s inaugural executive director.”
Lewis now is responsible for overseeing operations of the proton therapy center, as well as for control of the business and day-to-day affairs of the LLC. He also will continue to serve as associate vice president for NIU Outreach.
“John’s experience typifies everything the outreach and engagement model is about: the collaborative interaction of a university with its region in areas of strategic importance,” said Anne Kaplan, vice president for administration and university outreach. “As associate vice president, John leads a team of professionals in building partnerships that generate research, entrepreneurial solutions, support services and educational programs and delivery systems.”
Over his 30-year history at NIU, Lewis has been involved in a variety of administrative roles and at times has been in charge of as many as 100 staff members.
“I’m thrilled to be contributing to the development of the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center,” Lewis said. “I’ve long been committed to the outreach efforts of Northern Illinois University, and this project brings together many different facets of the university’s expertise.
“By providing this important cancer treatment option, the center will meet a vital need in the region,” Lewis added. “Equally important, we envision the proton therapy center as a hub of research, training and education efforts. Northern Illinois University will become the first public U.S. institution of higher education concentrating on developing comprehensive educational programs that will teach specific job skills necessary for proton therapy treatment centers here and across the world.”
Lewis holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He previously served as a senior research associate at NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies, specializing in economic-development and health-care research. He also serves as an adjunct professor, teaching the economics of health care within NIU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
Fifty-two students from Rockford Jefferson High School, including a number of recent graduates from the Class of 2008, returned to the NIU campus Sunday evening for a weeklong taste of the college life.
For some, the next few days are an orientation of sorts: After four years of attending the Project REAL camp, a handful of these students who once had little or no ambitions or expectations for college are incoming NIU freshmen.
And, for the first time, this year’s experience will concentrate on a central theme: tolerance. Deb Smith-Shank, a professor of art education at NIU, suggested the new concept.
“It seems like it fits really well,” camp director Judy Cox-Henderson said. “One of the things the kids talk about being really important about the camp is getting along with kids from school who they haven’t gotten along with before. The kids think that’s valuable.”
Classes in English and art will revolve around concepts of tolerance, she said, and 16 students are signed up for a course on the history of genocide.
Meanwhile, the simple act of leaving home for a few days and sharing a room in Stevenson Towers should provide the rest of the lessons.
“They learn a lot about independence. They set behavioral expectations for themselves. They learn to get along,” said Cox-Henderson, whose main responsibility is coordinator of clinical experiences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “There’s sort of a problem with that at Jefferson, but they rise to the occasion. They learn people skills.”
Project REAL, NIU’s federally funded partnership with the Rockford Public Schools and Rock Valley College, ends its five-year grant this year. The camp launched in 2005 to expose students who were not necessarily college-bound – but whose teachers glimpsed that potential within them – to the benefits of higher education.
Judging by this summer’s presence of a few future Huskies, it’s proven a success.
“It’s wonderful. It’s what we’ve really wanted to happen from the very beginning,” Cox-Henderson said.
“Even though they’re afraid to go to college, they think they can handle NIU because they’re familiar with it,” she added. “Camp has made it possible for these kids who might not have gone that extra step. It’ll change their entire lives. It’ll give them something else. It just expands what they can do with the rest of their lives. They will have options.”
To further help those students, the camp will offer a “UNIV 101” course in study skills that will improve their familiarity with the campus and introduce them to college-level reading and note-taking.
This year’s camp also has introduced a course in teaching methods. “That’s sort of something I’ve wanted to do … encourage these kids to go into teaching,” Cox-Henderson said.
NIU faculty from the colleges of Education, Health and Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences and Visual and Performing Arts teach the classes. Ten NIU students serve as counselors.
Other courses include 3-D Art, Medical Mystery, Photo Story, Photography, Pottery, Printmaking and Video Gaming.
In 3-D Art, they create sculptures out of shoes. In Medical Mystery – it’s actually a class in microbiology – students are presented with symptoms and must determine the illness. In Photo Story, they transform their pictures into something near to a movie. In Video Gaming, they create their own video games.
Students will welcome their families Friday afternoon to the NIU Music Building for a showcase of the week’s accomplishments and a presentation of awards.
The week in DeKalb also will feature fun activities, including a pool party at Hopkins Park and a night of billiards, bowling and more at the Huskies Den. Cox-Henderson is proud that students in Jefferson High School’s NIU Club raised funds during the school year to pay for those events.
Some lovers of French symphonic music from 1850 to 1920 appreciate the beauty of well-constructed music composed simply for the listener’s enjoyment.
Others prefer those works that express emotions – or is it politics? – through the music.
Either way, NIU’s Brian Hart knows a book that will help both camps better understand the context of the music, the composers and the times.
Hart, an associate professor in the NIU School of Music and its coordinator of history and literature, is a contributor to “The Symphonic Repertoire: The European Symphony from ca. 1800 to ca. 1930: Great Britain, Russia, and France. Volume III. Part B.”
The Indiana University Press published the book, the latest in a five-volume series that comprehensively covers the entire history of the symphony. Hart will serve as editor of the final volume, which is still in planning and will deal with 20th century and American symphonies.
Main author A. Peter Brown, who died in 2003, was a mentor to Hart who asked his former student to author the chapter on France. Hart worked on the chapter from 1995 to 2002 and tweaked and updated it until the November 2007 printing.
“It’s the first time any scholar, including in France, has written a panoramic history of the symphony in France from 1850 to 1920. That’s not a period studied a whole lot, even by French scholars,” Hart says. “Regarding certain composers, I’m the first to do some analytical writing. It’s an under-mined field with a lot of room left for investigation and study.”
Composers during those years in France were widely regarded as second-tier in comparison to the Germans and Italians, he says, but a closer inspection reveals they were creating great works and playing pivotal roles in the political and cultural climate of their times.
Meanwhile, the composers adjusted with evolving perceptions of music from their countrymen. In the earlier part of the era, Hart says, opera was considered a serious pursuit while symphonies were dismissed as “a waste of time.”
Yet after the French suffered defeat by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, composers were challenged to compete musically with the Germans for the sake of national pride.
Two factions emerged: those who composed symphonies for the pleasure of listening and those who composed symphonies to convey a message.
“Nowadays, people are looking at the music on its own merits,” Hart says. “There were some fine composers, but not always well-known.”
Hart pored through old music journals and devoured day-after-performance newspaper reviews, where he discovered the dry wit and wonderful sarcasm of the French intact and the presumed politics of the music occasionally skewered. His research included determining whether each critic knew their topic and what, if any, were their political biases.
When their reviews paused for questions of what a symphony is, and what a symphony should be, Hart delighted. “The most valuable things I found were when the critics digressed,” he says.
He also listened to numerous CDs and looked at the corresponding scores.
Did the composition follow the typical structures of the time? Was there a distinctive treatment of the melody? How was the melody developed and used? Did the orchestration explore all the possibilities of tonal color available from the musicians?
“The French are famous for that,” he says, mentioning the so-called “Organ Symphony” by Camille Saint-Saëns (among the composers who believed that “hearing the beauty of their music should be satisfying itself”) and Vincent d’Indy’s “Symphony on a French Mountain Air,” where the piano plays and develops the main theme.
On the other hand, Hart says, composer Albéric Magnard was known for using a single color in his works.
Magnard was a follower of César Franck, who intended his compositions to prove “more meaningful than evocative.” So were Guy Ropartz, whose “Symphony in E Major” had a message of love, truth and justice that some saw as socialism, and Charles Tournemire, whose mystical works explored man’s search for God and the composer’s own grief over his wife’s death.
Such a wide variety of concepts is rare among one nation and one era of composers, Hart says, and many of the compositions live on today on CD and in live performance. Only five of the works were unavailable on disc when he began the project and all but two had been recorded by the time he finished.
Among those still well known are Bizet’s “Symphony in C Major,” the “Organ Symphony” by Saint-Saëns, Franck’s “Symphony in D Minor,” Ernest Chausson’s “Symphony in Bb Major” and “Symphony in C Major” by Paul Dukas.
There are current music historians who still regard the French composers of 1850 to 1920 as lesser than their German and Italian counterparts, he says, but that has changed greatly in the last decade.
“Scholarship in French music has really come to be seen as equal to scholarship in German music,” says Hart, who came to NIU in 1996. “It’s a good time for a volume like this to appear.”
Faculty members in the NIU Department of History have had a banner year so far, bringing home a number of major grant and fellowship awards.
“Every one of these awards is significant and very competitive,” said Professor Kenton Clymer, chair of the department. “I think it says a lot about the quality of our faculty members.”
Among the awards:
Take 58 minutes to help the newest faces at NIU to embrace the community and honor the traditions.
Faculty and staff are invited to join President John G. Peters at the Fall 2008 Academic Convocation, scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 22, in the NIU Convocation Center. Regalia and assembly begins at 10:30 a.m.
Academic Convocation is the formal ceremony to officially welcome and celebrate incoming NIU students. Students will learn about the many academic opportunities and cultural traditions of NIU.
For more information, contact Mary Spring, Office of Student Affairs, at mspring@niu.edu or (815) 753-1573.
Construction crews will continue working this week to install chilled water lines beneath Normal Road. Work on the project will continue throughout the summer, and Normal Road is expected to remain closed until Aug. 1.
Parking Lot 10, and the northeast quadrant of Lot 5 (at the Campus Life Building), is closed for staging of materials for the project. To offset the loss of parking spaces in Lot 5, Campus Parking Services is allowing Blue Permit parking in Lot D (west of Neptune Hall) until Aug. 15. For more information, contact Campus Parking Services at (815) 753-1045.
Pedestrian crossings will be maintained throughout the project, though the location of crosswalks might change periodically.
Caution is urged when walking or driving around any of the construction work due to heavy equipment and truck traffic. Work is scheduled between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Paul Gill, who lectured earlier this month on “Exploring the Unknowns in Reality,” will tonight expand on his first presentation of general concepts in current science.
His interactive discussion takes place from 6:30 to 8:15 p.m. today in room 200 of Faraday West. All are welcome.
Gill has taught science classes and given lectures at Harper College and College of DuPage over the past four years. He is working toward his second graduate degree in NIU’s Department of Physics.
The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, with the Division of International Programs at NIU and the DeKalb Public Library, will this week host a group of nine library professionals from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The group, which also includes three representatives from the U.S. Department of State, is visiting NIU as part of a program being organized by the International Visitors Center of Chicago titled “American Corners and Library Science: A Regional Project for Southeast Asia.” This program is sponsored by the Office of International Visitors, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
“They specifically wanted to come to NIU because of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies,” said Julia Lamb, outreach coordinator for the center. “We are delighted that they will be visiting our campus and our community and we look forward to future partnerships with the International Visitors Center.”
While in DeKalb, the Southeast Asian librarians and U.S. Department of State representatives will visit and learn about the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and have opportunities to meet students, faculty and staff affiliated with the center. They also will visit the NIU Libraries and the DeKalb Public Library to learn more about U.S. library management and operations.
The Northern Star is publishing online only this summer session. Breaking news is posted immediately, and the site is updated to a complete new edition every Monday evening.
Readers with news tips should call (815) 753-4239. Those wishing to advertise online this summer should call (815) 753-0707.
The Star’s next print edition will be the Back to School issue, which will be delivered to all regular distribution points Thursday, Aug. 21. Daily print and online publication resumes Monday, Aug. 25, the first day of fall classes.
Beginning Tuesday, July 1, listeners of WNIJ will hear some changes on the Northern Public Radio station, including the return of Bob Edwards to the local public radio dial.
Northern Public Radio also plans to begin streaming online at www.wnij.org and www.wniu.org by July 1. This feature is scheduled to coincide with the debut of re-designed station Websites, where visitors also can sign up for a new E-Newsletter to stay informed of station happenings.
Programming changes include:
“Here & Now” (noon weekdays, beginning Tuesday, July 1)
For one energetic hour each weekday, “Here & Now” combines the best in news journalism with intelligent, broad-ranging conversation to form a fast-paced program that updates the news from the morning and adds important conversations on public policy and foreign affairs, science, technology and the arts, from film and theater to music, food and more. A notable roster of guests joins “Here & Now” host Robin Young.
“Sound Opinions” (noon Saturdays with a rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Sundays, beginning July 5)
Take two nationally respected rock critics, the latest music news, personal commentary and exclusive interviews and performances. Add a huge pile of records old and new. The result is “Sound Opinions,” the world’s only rock ’n’ roll talk show.
Based in Chicago, “Sound Opinions” is hosted by music journalists Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot. Every week, “Sound Opinions” fires up smart and spirited discussions about a wide range of popular music, from cutting-edge underground rock and hip-hop, to classic rock, R&B, electronica, worldbeat or just about any other genre. It’s public radio’s answer to inquisitive and adventurous music fans hungry for exposure to new sounds.
“Bob Edwards Weekend” (2 p.m. Sundays, beginning July 6)
One of public radio’s most familiar voices returns to WNIJ this July. Bob Edwards is the host of “Bob Edwards Weekend,” distributed to public radio stations by Public Radio International. As one of the original co-hosts to launch “Morning Edition” in 1979, Edwards’ latest program features in-depth interviews with newsmakers, journalists, entertainers and other compelling figures.
WNIU (90.5 / 105.7 FM), the area’s only 24-hour-a-day non-commercial classical music service, will in July present a new roster of music hosts, including former NIU Huskie Bob Christiansen.
Northern Public Radio also plans to begin streaming online at www.wnij.org and www.wniu.org by Tuesday, July 1. This feature is scheduled to coincide with the debut of re-designed station Websites, where visitors also can sign up for a new E-Newsletter to stay informed of station happenings.
John Zech (5 to 9 a.m. weekdays) is a radio veteran with 21 years of broadcasting experience. He is an accomplished trombonist whose knowledge and love of classical music make him a perfect fit for a classical music series.
Zech speaks English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. His interests are broad, including tournament-level tennis, all forms of billiards and martial arts. He also boasts tremendous marketing savvy, having spent many years in management and sales for a Twin Cities-based multilingual communications company.
Jeff Esworthy (9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays) hosted at WKSU-FM/Kent in northeastern Ohio from 1978 to 1995. He professes a widely diverse musical background.
As a teen, Esworthy developed a keen interest in the classical music of North India and studied sitar. In college, he studied anthropology; the music of India, Japan and Africa; and rural northern Thailand. He also has an interest in folk music, has played banjo in a southern string band and also plays fiddle.
Julie Amacher (1 to 3 p.m. weekdays) is the only four-time winner of the PRPD Announcer of the Year award. Her work as music director of KUNC/Greeley helped win that station the PRPD Flo Award for Best Station six times and the Fundraising Award twice. Amacher’s record of outstanding work as an announcer, programmer and producer at KUNC make her one of the most respected hosts in the public radio system.
Valerie Kahler (3 to 7 p.m. weekdays) hails from Mesa, Ariz., graduating from Northern Arizona University with a degree in performance as a cellist. She was a member of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra.
Kahler began her career in radio at KNAU-FM/Flagstaff in 1989 as program host and music director. During the summer of 1998, she worked for National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” Her interests in music cover many classical genres, pop, Broadway music and more.
Bob Christiansen (7 p.m. to midnight Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays; 5 to 11 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays) has been an announcer and program director for nearly 30 years. This Chicago-area native attended NIU and served as a music host at WNIU. He teamed up with Bill Morelock while at Northwest Public Radio, creating the nationally distributed “Bob & Bill” program.
In addition to his current work in classical programming, Christiansen hosts shifts on Minnesota Public Radio’s classical music stations, including hosting “The Opera,” a weekly program devoted to one of his personal weaknesses.
Suzanne Bona (“Sunday Baroque” from 7 to 10 a.m. Sundays) has been a classical music broadcaster since 1987. She’s also a professional, classically trained flutist. This avid reader, culinary explorer and cat lover is a true radio aficionado enjoying life sans TV.
It’s time for the NIU Art Museum’s annual “Art to Lend” program.
This exhibition of artwork from the permanent collection is available to hang in secure campus offices. To consider the selections, stop by the Altgeld gallery (first floor, west end) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, July 14, through Thursday, July 17.
As in previous years, works will be assigned by lottery based on preferred selections. The lottery drawing will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday, July 17.
There are nominal fees for this service to cover part of the Art Museum’s incurred costs and for the direct care and maintenance of the collection, including matting and framing to make new selections available.
Check www.vpa.niu.edu/museum for more information on the rental policy.
For more information, contact Pete Olson at (815) 753-7867 or polson@niu.edu.
Ben Dewey, laboratory manager in the Department of Physics, is retiring at the end of the month after 17 years of service to NIU.
A celebration is planned from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, June 30, in Faraday West 300.
NIU’s Alumni Association will thank NIU faculty and staff for their support and dedication to the university by offering two-for-one pricing for an upcoming Chicago White Sox game Tuesday, July 1.
Join the Alumni Association in a private suite featuring indoor and outdoor open seating and continuous buffet and bar starting at 6 p.m. through the seventh inning stretch. Packages cost $125 and include two game tickets, all food and beverages and a wonderful atmosphere. Join us Tuesday, July 1, for an exciting baseball reception.
Call (815) 753-1452 to order.
Discover Dalmatia’s ruggedly beautiful, island-dominated shoreline on this touring itinerary which takes travelers from Dubrovnik in southern most Croatia to Ljubljana, the beautiful capital city in Slovenia.
The trip begins Sept. 19.
The Dalmatian Coast offers an unmatched collection of Roman ruins, medieval towns, gorgeous rivieras, picturesque lakes, mountain views and idyllic islands. Visitors step back in time at beautiful Dubrovnik, an architectural gem that is more than 1,000 years old.
More information about this and other NIU Alumni Association Travel Programs is available online.