Faculty News CAMPUS CURRENT Faculty News
“Snake People” Launch Award-winning Website pair is working with HMC alumna Susan Lewallen ’76, an
It could be that Adam Johnson, associate professor of chem- ophthalmologist based in Tanzania and several other African
istry, and his fellow inorganic chemistry colleagues are called ophthalmologists to provide more accurate estimates of target
“the snake people” because they cataract surgical rates (CSR) in African countries.
wear hats, T-shirts and tattoos The project is the brainchild of Lewallen, who had a hunch
with the VIPEr logo and that current World Health Organization CSR targets might
don stuffed snakes at con- be unrealistically high for African countries. Cataract is a





ferences. Or it could be common cause of avoidable blindness in the elderly, and there






because they created a is a simple surgery to replace the lens and restore sight. Eye




website called VIPEr care providers in Africa were given target numbers of surgeries






(Virtual Inorganic to perform each year by the The World Health Organization







Pedagogical Elec- whose Vision 2020 initiative aims to eliminate preventable






tronic Resource) at blindness by the year 2020. However, Susan and others found






www.ionicviper.org to it impossible to meet the target CSR.






encourage inorganic Lewallen reached out to the HMC Mathematics Depart-

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chemistry professors at ment for help assaying the rate of cataract and appropriate
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primarily undergraduate surgical rates. Williams, a statistician with a strong interest in
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institutions to share ideas real-world applications, saw an opportunity to contribute to
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and lessons, receive support and the project.
develop friendships. “Susan sent us data from nine sites in Africa,” said
Whatever the reason, the snake people—Johnson, Williams, “then we calculated prevalence and incidence to
Jezmynne Dene, science librarian at Claremont University come up with realistic estimates of target CSR in Africa, and
Consortium, and other members of the VIPEr leadership they were much lower than current World Health Organiza-
council—recently received the NITLE Community Contri- tion targets.”
bution Award for using technology effectively to strengthen Williams and Stock, who plans to teach math in the Peace
undergraduate education. Corps, travelled to Africa to present their results. “[The oph-
The website, created by IONiC (Interactive Online Net- thalmologists] no longer need to be
work of Inorganic Chemists), provides teaching resources, fruitlessly trying to increase
suggested lessons and forums for inorganic chemists to in- their surgery rates. They
teract. can focus on other
Johnson said it encourages faculty to teach more broadly objectives, like in

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outside their comfort zones. The plan is to get faculty leaders creasing the qual-








at research universities like MIT and Caltech to talk to faculty ity of care.”















at undergraduate institutions about important and exciting The team is















problems in the field of inorganic chemistry and, eventually, working on












to develop learning objects for the website to address those two papers










specific issues. based on












this research,













Cataract Research Helping Healthcare Providers which will be







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Mathematics Professor Talithia Williams and recent HMC submitted to


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graduate Brian Stock ’09 traveled to Mombasa, Kenya, for the Journal of

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the Ophthalmological Society of Eastern Africa 38th An- Ophthalmology.

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cataract and appropriate treatment strategies in Africa. The


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FALL/WINTER 2009 Harvey Mudd College 7
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