Press Releases

October 3, 2001
From Around The Country, New Faculty Welcomed to Southampton

Three Professors Join Nationally Recognized Natural Science Division; One Major Addition to Growing Media Arts Program

Contact:
Patricia Conway
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

Southampton College is pleased to welcome four professors to its expanding list of faculty members. The new recruits have joined the College community from such diverse areas of the country as Georgia, Wisconsin and Maryland.

The College's nationally recognized Natural Science Division - which offers courses in Marine Science, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Geology, Mathematics and Physics - adds three faculty members: Edward Himelblau, Assistant Professor of Biology, Maria Kretzmann, Professor of Biology/Marine Science, and Glynis Pereyra, Assistant Professor of Biology/Marine Science. Christa Kreeger Bowden, has joined the Arts and Media Division as a Professor of Photography.

"Each of our new faculty members brings important additional assets to Southampton College and the surrounding community," said James L. Larocca, Academic Dean of Southampton College. "Professors Himelblau, Kretzmann and Pereyra, all recognized figures in their respective fields, further strengthen our world-class Natural Sciences Division. Bowden, an internationally recognized photographer, is a major addition to our Arts and Media program."

Himelblau received his B.S. from the University of California at San Diego (his hometown) before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. His research interests are in the fields of plant biology, biotechnology, DNA, and genetically modified organisms. While at UW he served as a Biotechnology Education Specialist, discussing the potential benefits and risks of biotechnology with the public. He began his career as a Research Assistant at the Salk Institute, and has held teaching posts at both the University of California at San Diego and the University of Wisconsin. Prior to graduate school, Himelblau taught at the Catalina Island Marine Institute, an outdoor education facility off the coast of California. Himelblau's molecular biology cartoons have appeared in Nature Genetics, Nature Neuroscience, The Scientist, BioMedNet and the HMS Beagle publications. His wife, Kit, is an artist and a teacher. They share their new home with a dog and two cats.

Kretzmann studied at Cornell University and later earned both a Masters of Science and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has lectured extensively around the world on the genetic structure of the Hawaiian monk seal, and on elephant seal pups and the Australian sea lion. Her husband teaches in the Marine Sciences Division at SUNY Stony Brook. They live in Mount Sinai with their two children, Ariana and Julian.

Pereyra, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, earned a B.A. degree from the Kutztown State University of Pennsylvania. She is a specialist in viruses in the marine environment and has expertise in marine and environmental pathogens (bacteria that can cause disease in humans). She has a special interest in Alaskan fisheries regulations and once worked as a fisheries observer in Alaska. She is the recipient of many academic awards including the Kutztown State University Honors Scholarship and the Ward Melville Scientific Research Fellowship from the Marine Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has relocated with her husband and seven-year-old son from Baltimore to Westhampton.

Bowden earned her undergraduate degree from Newcomb College of Tulane University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia. She taught Digital Media at the University of Georgia and photographic imaging at the Art Institute of Atlanta. She has extensive professional experience in the photographic process, specializing in black and white photography and digital imaging. Bowden has had both solo and group exhibits of her works shown throughout Georgia and in New Orleans, LA and Cortona, Italy. Her work will be featured in the Women's National Art Invitational Exhibition at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina in March 2002. She and her husband, Nathan, have relocated to Hampton Bays.