Honors and Other Things
Dr.
Meggers: Dreyfus Award
Dr.
Eric Meggers, assistant professor of chemistry,
has been awarded a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award. The
Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Awards Program is designed
to provide external research support of new faculty no later than
the beginning of their first full-time academic appointments.
Dr.
Tegmark: Cottrell Scholar
Dr.
Max Tegmark,
assistant professor of physics, has been named a 2002 Cottrell Scholar,
awarded by the Research Corporation. The honor recognizes
faculty who excel in both teaching and research and carries with
it an award of $75,000 to further the research and teaching of the
scholar.
Dr. Tegmark's winning
research proposal, Beyond Cosmological Parameters, hopes
to help determine accurate ways of studying the types of matter
in the universe and other cosmological problems. His application
additionally included a teaching proposal geared towards improving
the teaching of science to non-majors at Penn, developing an outreach
program to Philadelphia high schools, and a web outreach program
with the intention of "conveying cutting-edge results in the
proposed research areas to a broad audience, with the aim to convey
not merely the discoveries themselves, but also the scientific method
and its intrinsic value."
Dr.
Joshi: Lifetime Achievement
Dr.
Aravind Joshi,
Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science at SEAS,
has been named the third recipient of the David E. Rumelhart Prize
for contemporary contributions to the formal analysis of human cognition.
Dr. Joshi was chosen for his seminal contributions to the formal
and computational analysis of language. The Rumelhart Prize is funded
and coordinated by the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation and the Cognitive
Science Society. "Joshi's work has been the key to the development
of effective computational methods for analyzing the structure of
sentences," said James McClelland of Carnegie Mellon University.
"Among Joshi's core ideas is his Tree Adjoining Grammar Formalism,
which has provided the formal machinery necessary for capturing
key insights from earlier work on transformational grammar in a
computationally tractable framework."
Dr.
Joshi has also received the first lifetime achievement award given
by the Association for Computational Linguistics, which recently
had its 40th anniversary meeting at Penn.
Dr.
Joullie: Senior Scholar Award
Dr.
Madeleine Joullie, professor of chemistry,
has received the 2002 Arthur C. Cope Senior Scholar Award from the
American Chemical Society. "Joullie is particularly distinguished
for her pioneering, ongoing research with the didemnins," wrote
a colleague who nominated her for the award. Didemnins are compounds
isolated from tunicates, marine animals such as sea squirts, and
which show anticancer properties. Several examples of her work in
the field, "beautifully executed with surgical precision,"
have been described in textbooks, he added.
Dr.
Farber: European Academy
Dr.
David J. Farber, the Alfred Fitler Moore
Professor of Telecommunication Systems, has been elected a member
of the European Academy of Sciences in the section of Computer Science
with the citation "for an outstanding and lasting contribution
to computer science and computer science education." The Academy's
mandate is to promote peace and technological developments, to facilitate
collaboration between scientists and to emphasize their essential
roles in fostering social and economic development.
Two
Elected Fellows to American Academy of Microbiology
Dr.
Paul H. Edelstein, professor of pathology
and laboratory medicine, and Dr. Susan R. Ross, professor
of microbiology, have been elected fellows of the American Academy
of microbiology. Dr. Edelstein was noted for "a distinguished
career in clinical microbiology and major contributions to the diagnosis,
treatment, and evaluation of therapies for Legionnaires' disease."
Dr. Ross was noted for " important research in retroviral pathogenesis
and innovation in the use of transgenic mice to study viruses."
Dr.
Lambertsen: Lifetime Award
Dr.
Christian J. Lambertsen,
professor emeritus of environmental medicine and the Founding Director
of the Institute for Environmental Medicine, was honored this summer
at this year's Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society National
Meeting with a two-day symposium dedicated to his lifetime achievements.
Dr. Lambertsen who is considered the "Father of U.S. Combat
Swimming," joined the faculty in 1946 and has contributed to
every aspect of military and commercial diving.
Dr.
Kaufman: Director, Wistar Institute
Dr.
Russel E. Kaufman
has been named director and CEO of The Wistar Institute. Dr. Kaufman
was vice dean for education and academic affairs for the Duke University
School of Medicine and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs
for the Duke University Health System. Additionally, he was a professor
of medicine and biochemistry at Duke, with research interests focused
on the genetics of blood diseases and cancer.
At
Wistar, Dr. Kaufman says he plans to give priority to research programs
in emerging areas of science that hold great promise for delivering
new treatments for major diseases.
Mr.
Ramos: Giving Forward Award
Mr.
Pedro Ramos,
vice president and chief of staff, and former president of the Philadelphia
Board of Education, received the Giving Forward Award at this year's
Celebration of Scholars.
During
his school board presidency, student academic achievement improved,
14 new charter schools opened, and the Board increased its involvement
in safety and security issues, adopted a student uniform policy,
and approved a new teacher's contract. The Giving Forward Award
is presented to individuals, companies, and organizations that have
shown a commitment to the education of Philadelphia's youth by helping
public school students realize their dreams of a college education.
Moms
Honored
The
Pennsylvania Partnership for Children honored 31 women in May as
"The Hardest Working Mothers of Southeastern Pennsylvania."
Among them were Felicia Green, of the Office of Government, Community
and Public Affairs; Michelle Jester, and Jodi Sarkisian, both of
the President's Office.
UPHS:
On "Most Wired" in US List
Hospitals
& Health Networks, the journal of
the American Hospital Association, has named the Penn Health System
one of the nation's "most wired." The survey by the magazine
shows that large gaps exist between the services offered by institutions
like Penn and those less wired organizations.
"This year's
survey shows that "Most Wired" organizations continue
to commit employees and money to their tech investments," says
Alden Solovy, Hospitals &Health Networks executive editor.
"This is reflected in the large gaps in penetration of key
technologies, as well as in communication among patients, doctors,
and nurses."
Lippincott
Library: Excellence Award
Lippincott
Library has received the Center of Excellence Award from the Business
& Finance Division of the Special Libraries Association. The
judges noted that the library excelled in the area of service to
its clients. This first annual Center of Excellence Award serves
to recognize quality as a priority for the successful management
and delivery of information.
Inn
at Penn: Customer Service Award
This
April, the Inn at Penn became one of only two properties
in the 325-member Hilton Hotels Corp. to earn the Hilton Million
Dollar Team Pride Award for superior customer service. Only six
months earlier, AAA awarded the property its Four-Diamond official
appointment for its high level of service and hospitality. Each
full-time employee, many of whom come from the West Philadelphia
area, were given $500 as part of the award.
Almanac, Vol. 49, No. 4, September 17, 2002
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