Laurel Appel

Laurel Appel, adjunct associate professor of biology and senior research associate, died on March 4 2013. She is survived by her husband, Michael Weir, and her children, Rebecca and Nathaniel. Laurel began teaching at Wesleyan in 1993, and her contributions to curricular and co-curricular life have been substantial. In addition to the McNair Program, she played a central role in life science initiatives funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and she was actively engaged in efforts to integrate the life sciences with the arts. In her education as a scientist, earning her chemistry AB at Oberlin College, and Biophysical Chemistry MS and Genetics PhD at the University of California at Berkeley, she never imagined dance would ever enter her professional life. You never know.