Smith College’s pioneering Picker Engineering Program, the nation’s first and only accredited engineering program just for women, recently received $1 million for the purchase of state-of-the-art technology and equipment. The gift, which arrived through the Branta Foundation, extends a long history of generosity by the program’s namesake, philanthropist Harvey Picker, who died last year. Click here for more information.

What position did Elizabeth Alexander, chosen by President Barack Obama to write and deliver the Inaugural poem, hold at Smith? Click here to find out

Best-selling author and former Self magazine editor Alexandra Dracos Penney ’60 was just one of Bernie Madoff’s many financial victims, but she’s mad as hell and is taking it to the media. Check out her blog, The Bag Lady Papers, on the Daily Beast.

Marilyn Schuster, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, has been named provost and dean of the faculty, succeeding Susan Bourque. Schuster will begin a four-year term on July 1, 2009. “Marilyn has a record of distinguished scholarly achievement and curricular innovation,” said President Carol Christ in making the appointment. Click here for more.

Barbara Nunemaker Ridpath ’78 was tapped to be the CEO of the newly created International Center for Financial Regulation, an international think tank on financial regulation, based in London. Read the City of London’s news release here.

Smith pecans, a bout with breast cancer, and a treasured after-school homemade snack are the inspirations behind Lambie Guyton Stout ’91’s new venture, Comfort Crunch. Click here to read all about it on her Website.

Get all the latest student news from the Smith campus! Subscriptions for the spring semester of the Sophian (12 editions) are available to alumnae for $30 per semester. To subscribe, send your address plus a check made out to the Smith College Sophian to The Sophian, Capen Annex, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063. For the Sophian online click here.

Smith’s Junior Year Abroad continues to prepare students for life in a global society. Tina Jackson ’09 provides personal insight on the benefits—large and small, expected and surprising—of her year in Florence, something she never thought she would or could do. Click here to read Jackson’s account.

Now more than ever is the time to network and strategize with smart, savvy businesswomen. Join some of the best and brightest women in the world of business for Smith Women Mean Business, a two-day symposium on campus, March 26–27. For more information and to register click here.