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Volume 6, Issue 7
Feb. 17, 2006
Circulation 20,096

Friday FYI

Newsletter from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development- U. T. Dallas

University News

Bush Awards Medals for Science, Technology

President Bush presented science and technology achievement medals on Monday to 15 laureates who have done work that has revolutionized organ transplants, led to development of global positioning systems and helped feed millions around the world.

"The spirit of discovery is one of our national strengths," Bush said before handing out the 2004 National Medals of Science and Technology in the White House's East Room. "Our greatest resource has always been the educated, hardworking, ambitious people who call this country their home.

"From Thomas Edison's light bulb to Robert Ledley's CAT scan machine, most of America's revolutionary inventions began with men and women with a vision to see beyond what is and the desire to pursue what might be."

Established by Congress in 1959, the medal of science award is administered by the National Science Foundation. The ceremony brought to 425 the total number of medal of science recipients.

The medal of technology, established by Congress in 1980, is administered by the Commerce Department. So far, 166 of these technology medals have been awarded.

The list of award-winners was first announced Nov. 14.

Medal recipients in science:

Medal recipients in technology:

[ FYI Index ]

National Academy of Engineering Elects 76 Members and Nine Foreign Associates

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 76 new members and nine foreign associates, NAE President Wm. A. Wulf announced today. This brings the total U.S. membership to 2,216 and the number of foreign associates to 186.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

A list of the newly elected members and foreign associates follows, with their primary affiliations at the time of election and a brief statement of their principal engineering accomplishments.

New Members

Ilesanmi Adesida, interim dean, College of Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For contributions to the nanometer-scale processing of semiconductor structures and applications in high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Rakesh Agrawal, IBM Fellow and senior manager, IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, Calif. For the development of techniques for extracting information from very large databases.

Cristina H. Amon, Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and director, Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. For advances in heat transfer and thermal design of portable electronics and for contributions to engineering education.

Mary Pikul Anderson, professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison. For leadership in the development of groundwater-flow models.

Dimitri A. Antoniadis, Ray and Maria Stata Chair of Electrical Engineering, department of electrical engineering and computer science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. For contributions on microelectronics in field-effect devices and for silicon process modeling.

R. Lyndon Arscott, management consultant, Danville, Calif. For making health, safety, environmental protection, and sustainable development higher priorities in the oil industry.

Gregory B. Baecher, professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Maryland, College Park. For the development, explication, and implementation of probabilistic- and reliability-based approaches to geotechnical and water-resources engineering.

Egon Balas, Thomas Lord University Professor of Operations Research, department of mathematics sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. For contributions to integer programming and its applications to the scheduling and planning of industrial facilities.

Mark A. Barteau, Robert L. Pigford Professor and chair, department of chemical engineering, University of Delaware, Newark. For advancing the fundamental understanding of surface chemical-reaction mechanisms and for the design and invention of new catalysts.

Toby Berger, Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor of Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. For contributions to the theory and practice of lossy data compression.

Madan M. Bhasin, senior scientist, Union Carbide Corp., a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Co., South Charleston, W.Va. For the development of efficient catalysts for the production of ethylene oxide and for contributions to the fundamental understanding of catalysts.

Manuel Blum, Bruce Nelson Professor of Computer Science, computer science department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. For contributions to abstract complexity theory, inductive inference, cryptographic protocols, and the theory and applications of program checkers.

Samuel Wright Bodman, secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. For leadership and innovation in materials science and technology and for outstanding cabinet-level service to the U.S. government.

William J. Boettinger, fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md. For the application of rigorous principles of thermodynamics and kinetics to the design and control of critical industrial materials and processes.

Adrian R. Chamberlain, manager, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Denver. For innovations in the mobility, aesthetic, safety, and environmental aspects of transportation systems.

Josephine Cheng, IBM Fellow and vice president, IBM China Development Laboratories, Beijing. For sustained leadership and contributions to relational database technology and its pervasive applications to a wide range of digital operational systems.

W. Peter Cherry, chief analyst, Science Applications International Corp., Vienna, Va. For contributions to national security through planning and operational analyses of military forces, systems, and force-employment concepts.

Archie R. Clemins, owner and president, Caribou Technologies Inc., Boise, Idaho. For the creation and initial fielding of the U.S. Navy's transformational use of information, which has enabled net-centric operations.

Danny Cohen, distinguished engineer, Sun Microsystems Inc., Menlo Park, Calif. For contributions to the advanced design, graphics, and real-time network protocols of computer systems.

Robert Paul Colwell, independent consultant, Portland, Ore. For contributions to turning novel computer architecture concepts into viable, cutting-edge commercial processors.

Gary L. Cowger, global group vice president, General Motors Corp., Detroit. For contributions to the development and implementation of systems and methods that have dramatically improved flexibility, quality, and productivity in automobile manufacturing.

Robert A. Dalrymple, Willard & Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil Engineering, department of civil engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. For contributions to theories and their application to coastal and ocean engineering.

L. Berkley Davis, chief engineer, systems/accessories, General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y. For innovations leading to the development and worldwide implementation of low-NOx-emission gas turbines for electric-power generation.

Vijay K. Dhir, distinguished professor and dean, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles. For work on boiling heat transfer and nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics and safety.

Daniel W. Dobberpuhl, president and chief executive officer, P.A. Semi Inc., Menlo Park, Calif. For the innovative design and implementation of high-performance, low-power microprocessors.

Susan J. Eggers, Microsoft Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle. For contributions to the design and evaluation of advanced processor architectures.

Menachem Elimelech, Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. For contributions to the theory and practice of advanced filtration technologies for the treatment and reuse of potable water.

Richard G. Farmer, faculty research associate, department of electrical engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe. For the solution of problems in the dynamic operation of electric power systems, including subsynchronous resonance and system stabilization.

Katharine G. Frase, vice president of technology, IBM Corp., Somers, N.Y. For engineering contributions, including the use of lead-free materials, to the development of electronic packaging materials and processes.

Gary Harold Glover, professor of radiology and director, Radiological Sciences Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. For research and engineering in the development of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

David J. Goodman, professor of electrical and computer engineering, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, N.Y. For contributions to the theory and practice of wireless communications and digital signal processing.

Leslie Greengard, professor of mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York City. For work on the development of algorithms and software for fast multipole methods.

Michael D. Griffin, administrator, NASA, Washington, D.C. For technical leadership of the Delta 180/181/183 flight experiments that led to the first quantitative measurements of space intercept physics.

George M. Homsy, professor of mechanical and chemical engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara. For innovative experimental and theoretical studies of multiphase and interfacial flow phenomena and for the development of educational materials in fluid mechanics.

Davorin D. Hrovat, corporate technical specialist, Ford Research Laboratory, Dearborn, Mich. For contributions to the development of automotive controls that have led to improvements in performance, comfort, and safety.

Stephen B. Jaffe, retired distinguished scientific adviser, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co., Paulsboro, N.J. For the development of computer models describing complex petroleum-processing chemistry and kinetics and for contributions to the optimization of refining operations.

Frederick Jelinek, Julian Smith Sinclair Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. For contributions to statistical language processing with applications to automatic speech recognition.

M. Frans Kaashoek, professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. For contributions to computer systems, distributed systems, and content-distribution networks.

Linda P.B. Katehi, dean of engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. For contributions to three-dimensional integrated circuits and on-wafer packaging and to engineering education.

Pradeep K. Khosla, dean of engineering and Phillip and Marsha Dowd Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. For contributions to design and sensor-based control in robotic systems for the assembly of high-precision electronics and for leadership in engineering education.

David B. Kirk, chief scientist, NVIDIA Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. For his role in bringing high-performance graphics to personal computers.

Martin Klein, president, Martin Klein Consultants, Andover, Mass. For the development of underwater imaging systems that have contributed to ocean exploration and the recovery of high-value objects.

Thomas L. Koch, Daniel E. '39 and Patricia Smith Chair and director, Center for Optical Technologies, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. For contributions to optoelectronic technologies and their implementation in optical communications systems.

Demetrious C. Koutsoftas, associate principal and geotechnical group leader, Ove Arup & Partners, San Francisco. For advancing the state of practice and for the innovative design of soft-ground engineering and deep foundations.

John M. Kulicki, chief executive officer, president, and chief engineer, Modjeski and Masters Inc., Harrisburg, Pa. For the design of major bridges and for leadership in the development of load and resistance factor design specifications.

Sau-Hai (Harvey) Lam, Edwin Wilsey '04 Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. For contributions to aerospace engineering in the areas of plasma flows, combustion, turbulence, and adaptive controls.

James C.M. Li, professor, department of mechanical engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. For contributions to micromechanics and mesoscopic mechanisms in materials and to the commercialization of amorphous metals.

John H. Linehan, vice president, The Whitaker Foundation, Arlington, Va. For research on the pulmonary mechanics and metabolism of critical bioactive agents and for innovations in bioengineering education and professional development.

Verne L. (Larry) Lynn, consultant, Naples, Fla. For outstanding leadership and vision in the development and application of unmanned aerospace vehicles, sensors, and systems.

Krzysztof Aleksander Matyjaszewski, J.C. Warner Professor of Chemistry and director, Center for Macromolecular Engineering, chemistry department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. For expanding the capabilities of controlled/living polymerizations and developing ATRP, a robust catalytic process for the radical polymerization of monomers.

M. Douglas McIlroy, adjunct professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. For fundamental contributions to the development of computer operating systems and programming languages.

Paul V. Mockapetris, chairman and chief scientist, Nominum Inc., Redwood City, Calif. For contributions to the Internet, including pioneering and standardizing the Domain Name System.

Albert F. Myers, corporate vice president, strategy and technology, Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles. For contributions to the fly-by-wire control system for NASA research aircraft and for leadership in the development of the B-2 Stealth aircraft flight-control system.

Devaraysamudram R. Nagaraj, research fellow, Cytec Industries Inc., Stamford, Conn. For contributions to the development and commercialization of novel reagents that have advanced the science of froth flotation.

Robert M. Oliver, chairman of the board, ANSER Corp., Arlington, Va. For leadership in the development of financial engineering and for the application of operations research to important public problems.

Roberto Padovani, executive vice president and chief technology officer, QUALCOMM Inc., San Diego. For innovations in wireless communication, particularly the evolution of CDMA for wireless broadband data.

Bernhard O. Palsson, professor, department of bioengineering, University of California, San Diego. For scholarship, technological advances, and entrepreneurial activities in metabolic engineering.

Jean-Yves Parlange, professor of biological and environmental engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. For fundamental contributions to the formulation of water flow and solute transport in soils and groundwater.

Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj, professor of electrical engineering (research), Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. For contributions to the theory and practice of MIMO smart-antenna wireless technology.

Nicholas A. Peppas, Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering, University of Texas, Austin. For contributions to the development of biomedical and drug-delivery applications of polymer networks and hydrogels.

Priya Prasad, Ford Technical Fellow and manager, safety research department, Ford Research Laboratory, Dearborn, Mich. For advances in automotive safety and impact biomechanics that have led to safer vehicles.

Lanny A. Robbins, research fellow, Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich. For the development of novel commercial separation and purification processes for environmental control that have greatly improved the removal of trace impurities.

Hans Thomas Rossby, professor of oceanography, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett. For development of deep-ocean instruments and their application in shaping an ocean observing system.

William S. Saric, professor of aerospace engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station. For contributions to the fundamental understanding and control of shear flow and boundary-layer transition.

Eric Schmidt, chairman of the executive committee and chief executive officer, Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif. For the development of strategies for the world's most successful Internet search engine company.

Ricardo B. Schwarz, fellow, materials science and technology division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. For contributions to the fundamental understanding of the synthesis and behavior of metallic glasses.

Surendra P. Shah, Walter P. Murphy Professor, department of civil and environmental engineering and director, Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. For work on advanced cement-based materials and for promoting interdisciplinary research and education on concrete materials.

Alvy Ray Smith, consultant, Seattle. For the development of digital imaging, compositing, and painting that have led to fundamental changes in the graphic arts and motion picture industries.

Ching Wan Tang, distinguished research fellow, research and development, Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y. For the invention of the organic light-emitting device and organic bilayer solar cell, the bases of modern organic electronics.

Alan I. Taub, executive director, research and development, General Motors Corp., Warren, Mich. For contributions to the development of innovative electrical materials and automotive technologies, and leadership in the globalization of automotive research.

Ali Galip Ulsoy, William Clay Ford Professor of Manufacturing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For research on the dynamics and control of axially moving elastic materials and their implementation in automotive and manufacturing systems.

Vladimir N. Vapnik, fellow, NEC Laboratories America Inc., Princeton, N.J. For insights into the fundamental complexities of learning and for inventing practical and widely applied machine-learning algorithms.

Vaclav Vitek, professor, materials science and engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For work in the development of the atomistic modeling of crystalline solids and their application to materials engineering.

Tommy M. Warren, director, Casing Drilling Research, Testco Corp., Houston. For pioneering inventions in drilling technology.

G. Paul Willhite, Ross H. Forney Distinguished Professor and chair co-director, Tertiary Oil Recovery Project; and co-director, Kansas University Energy Research Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence. For research, technology, and education outreach in tertiary oil-recovery processes.

Dusan Zrnic, senior scientist, National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Okla. For the development of potent radar methods that have greatly improved operational weather detection and warning and advanced meteorological research.

New Foreign Associates

Charles Anthony Richard Hoare, senior researcher, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom. For fundamental contributions to computer science in the areas of algorithms, operating systems, and programming languages.

Evert Hoek, independent consulting engineer, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For major worldwide contributions in the development and application of rational design procedures for engineered systems in rock.

Jörg Imberger, professor of environmental engineering and chair, Centre for Water Research, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia. For contributions to and international leadership in the environmental fluid dynamics of lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, and coastal seas.

Markus V. Pessa, professor, research director, Optoelectronics Research Centre, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland. For outstanding contributions to optoelectronic devices, and for exceptional leadership in establishing new semiconductor industries in Finland.

Andrea Rinaldo, professor of civil engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. For contributions toward the understanding of the structure and organization of river basins and hydrologic transport processes.

Man Mohan Sharma, Emeritus Professor of Eminence, Mumbai University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. For contributions in multiphase reactions leading to rational design of reactive separations and leadership in shaping the Indian chemical industry.

Anthony P.F. Turner, head, Cranfield University, Silsoe, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. For the development of technology for glucose sensors, environmental monitors, and synthetic recognition molecules.

Kuang-Di Xu, president, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing. For contributions to the efficient manufacturing of quality steels with minimal environmental impact.

Miranda G.S. Yap, executive director and professor, Bioprocessing Technology Institute, Singapore. For her outstanding achievements in education, research, and management in the field of mammalian cell culture.

 

[ FYI Index ]

NIH Director Welcomes Five New Members to the Advisory Committee to the Director

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected five individuals to serve as members of the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD). Since 1966, the ACD has advised the NIH Director on policy and planning issues.

The new members, who join 11 current members of the council, are Nancy E. Adler, Ph.D., of San Francisco, California; David Botstein, Ph.D., of Princeton, New Jersey; Alexander R. Lerner of Glencoe, Illinois; Christine E. Seidman, M.D., of Milton, Massachusetts; and Tadataka Yamada, M.D., of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Nancy E. Adler, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, where she is also Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Center for Health and Community. She did her undergraduate work at Wellesley College and received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University. She has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and was named a National Associate of the National Academies. Dr. Adler’s current work examines the pathways from socioeconomic status (SES) to health. As director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on SES and Health, she coordinates research spanning social, psychological, and biological mechanisms by which SES influences health.

David Botstein, Ph.D., is Director and Anthony B. Evnin Professor of Genomics at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. Dr. Botstein’s research has centered on genetics, especially the use of genetic methods to understand biological functions. In the early 1970’s, he devised novel methods to study budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and devised novel genetic methods to study the functions of the actin and tubulin cytoskeletons. In 1980, he began his theoretical contributions on linkage mapping of the human genome. Linkage mapping of human disease genes became one of the foundations of the new science of genomics. At Princeton, Dr. Botstein leads a team of faculty who are teaching a new, experimental introductory science curriculum, where the basic ideas of physics, chemistry, computer science and biology, along with the relevant mathematics, are taught together. His current research effort is devoted to the study of yeast biology at the system level.

Alexander R. Lerner is Chief Executive Officer of the Illinois State Medical Society, a professional organization representing 14,000 Illinois physicians. He also holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company, the state’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, as well as of Illinois State Medical Insurance Services, Inc., the management arm of ISMIE Mutual. He joined the State Medical Society as its CEO in 1981, after serving as President of his own consulting firm, Governmental Affairs, Inc.

Christine E. Seidman, M.D., is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She was an undergraduate at Harvard College and received an M.D. from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1978. Dr. Seidman served as an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and received subspecialty training in cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She joined the staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1987 and is the Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Center.

Tadataka Yamada, M.D., is Chairman of Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and a member of GSK’s Board of Directors. He joined SmithKline Beecham as a non-executive Member of the Board of Directors in February 1994, and became President of Healthcare Services and Executive Director in February 1996. He was named Chairman of Research and Development, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, in February 1999, and in January 2001, he assumed his current role. He was formerly Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and Physician-in-Chief of the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr. Yamada is a graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in history. He earned his M.D. at New York University School of Medicine. He is a gastroenterologist who has focused his research on the molecular biology of gastrointestinal hormones and is the editor of the Textbook of Gastroenterology.

The ACD advises the NIH Director on policy matters important to the NIH mission of conducting and supporting biomedical and behavioral research, research training, and translating research results for the public.

[ FYI Index ]

Frederick Murphy, Researcher Who Helped Identify Ebola and Marburg Viruses, Joins UTMB Faculty

Pioneering virologist Frederick A. Murphy, one of the scientists who first identified the Ebola and Marburg viruses, has joined the faculty of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston.

Murphy comes to UTMB from the University of California at Davis, where he was formerly dean of the school of veterinary medicine and Distinguished Professor of Virology. At UTMB he has been named both professor of pathology and McLaughlin Professor in Residence, a position funded by the James W. McLaughlin Endowment, which supports training related to research in infectious disease and immunity.

Murphy’s first electron micrograph of the Ebola virus, made in 1976 when he was chief of viral pathology for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is now one of the iconic images of modern infectious disease research. His groundbreaking studies of the highly lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses led to his proposal that the two structurally similar pathogens be placed into a new virus family called the Filoviridae, after their spaghetti-like filamentous forms.

Murphy also helped classify and name two other virus families: the family Arenaviridae (which includes the virus that causes Lassa fever) and the family Bunyaviridae (which includes hantaviruses and Rift Valley fever virus).

As director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at CDC, Murphy worked to develop programs in such areas as child care health, hepatitis B control, and the effort to identify the virus that causes hepatitis C as well as contributing to CDC’s early programs for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. He is currently a member of the Institute of Medicine, the component of the National Academies of Science that advises the federal government on biomedical science, medicine and health.

Murphy noted that almost all of the new human diseases that have emerged over the last 15 years are “zoonotic,” meaning that they circulated among animals before jumping to humans. He said controlling them requires a much broader effort than that needed for pathogens that circulate only among people.

The breadth of UTMB’s own infectious disease programs under the CBEID and the IHII, along with its collaborations with other institutions under the Western Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, make the university an ideal place for the kind of wide-ranging research needed to counter the infectious threats of the future, according to Murphy.

[ FYI Index ]

Emory Appoints New Director of University Science Strategies

Emory University has appointed Lanny S. Liebeskind, PhD, to a newly created position of director of university science strategies. The position was developed, in part, to help implement the science and technology portion of Emory's new strategic plan. Dr. Liebeskind, who most recently served as senior associate dean for research in Emory College, will continue to hold his appointment as the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry.

In addition to working toward effective implementation of the strategic plan initiatives, Liebeskind's goals in the new position will include helping Emory attain institutional growth that is aligned with its strategic priorities; achieving higher standards of excellence in research and teaching and higher national rankings of science departments; recruiting highly competitive faculty and students; creating greater opportunities for interdisciplinary research; and increasing understanding, interaction and shared purpose between the health sciences and the arts and sciences at Emory.

In his new position, Liebeskind will report directly to Michael M.E. Johns, MD, Emory executive vice president for health affairs and CEO of the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center; Earl Lewis, PhD, Emory provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; and Michael J. Mandl, Emory executive vice president for finance and administration. He also will collaborate with Emory's vice president for research administration and associate vice president for strategic planning, and he will continue to serve as the primary liaison with the Georgia Research Alliance on behalf of Emory President James Wagner.

Emory's strategic plan includes three major cross-cutting initiatives in science and technology in which Emory can provide national and international leadership: (1) neuroscience, human nature and society; (2) predictive health and society; and (3) computational and life sciences.

The neuroscience initiative includes four main areas: neurobiology of wellbeing and disease; evolution and human uniqueness; interdisciplinary study of human nature; and neuroscience and public policy. Emory plans to develop a Comprehensive Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Center that will integrate translational research, clinical care and education, drawing not only on medicine, public health, and the resources of Yerkes National Primate Research Center, but also on law, business and the arts and sciences.

Before serving as senior associate dean for research in Emory College from 2000 to 2005, Liebeskind was chair of Emory's Department of Chemistry from 1996 to 2000. He joined the chemistry department in 1985 and was named Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry in 1988. He received his bachelor's degree from S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo in 1972 and his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1976, followed by a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a National Institutes of Health Fellowship at Stanford.

[ FYI Index ]

$30 Million Gift Jump Starts Stanford Effort for Environment

Stanford University trustee Ward W. Woods, '64, and his wife, Priscilla, have committed US$30 million to the Stanford Institute for the Environment, institute leaders announced Tuesday.

The gift is designed to support innovative environmental programs and collaborative research that lead to significant advances in environmental science and policy. In recognition of the gift, the institute will be renamed the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

The Woods Institute is the cornerstone of the campuswide Initiative for Environmental Sustainability, which was launched in 2004 to promote an environmentally sustainable world where human needs are met while protecting and restoring the Earth's natural resources. To accomplish this goal, the initiative promotes work at the intersection of traditional disciplines by attracting faculty and students from every school, laboratory and institute on campus. The Woods gift brings total contributions to the initiative to more than $40 million.

A Stanford donor and active volunteer for decades, Ward Woods was president and chief executive officer of Bessemer Securities LLC, a privately held investment company, from 1989 until his retirement in December 1999. He is a member of the university Board of Trustees and chair of the Stanford Management Company's board of directors. From 1996 to 2002, he served on the board of visitors of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

The Woods Institute focuses on four environmental areas in which Stanford has the greatest expertise and is thus likely to do the greatest good, according to institute leaders: freshwater resources; energy and climate systems; land use and conservation; and oceans and estuaries.

Part of the gift will be used to further three institute programs: Environmental Venture Projects (EVP), Strategic Collaborations, and Environmental Management and Leadership.

Through EVP, multidisciplinary faculty teams receive seed money for innovative, promising research projects that are difficult to fund in their initial stages through traditional sources. EVP already supports more than a dozen projects, including an effort by engineers and medical faculty to develop new membrane technology that will allow rural communities in developing countries to purify drinking water cheaply.

The institute's Strategic Collaborations program is designed to bring Stanford faculty together with outside organizations—including government agencies, industry leaders and other research institutions—to address major sustainability challenges. The Woods gift will go toward two such efforts:

· The Program on Global Food Security and the Environment, a joint project with the Freeman Spogli Institute to find new solutions to the closely related problems of hunger and destructive farming practices around the globe, and

· A new center for energy efficiency, which will explore innovative, economically sound technologies, policies and systems for reducing energy consumption.

The planned Environmental Management and Leadership Program will help provide environmental scientists with leadership and management skills. The program builds on the success of the institute's Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, which trains scientists to communicate and interact more effectively with policymakers and the media.

[ FYI Index ]

$25 Million Gift from Jules and Gwen Knapp Will Help Build 10-Story Medical Research Facility at the University of Chicago

Jules and Gwen Knapp of Chicago have donated US$25 million toward construction of a 330,760-square-foot, 10-story, state-of-the-art facility that will provide a new home for translational research programs in children's health, cancer, and other medical specialties at the University of Chicago.  

Soon to be the tallest building on campus, the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery will provide a focal point for researchers who work at the interface between basic science and medicine. These physician-scientists will translate the sorts of fundamental discoveries made by biologists and geneticists, as well as chemists and physicists, into better care for patients.

This is the Knapps' second multi-million-dollar gift to biomedical research at the University of Chicago. In 1991 they donated $10 million to establish the Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research, which is housed in the Jules F. Knapp Research Center, a five-story research facility. They also support the Gwen Knapp Symposium, an annual conference for researchers interested in lupus, and the Joy Faith Knapp Memorial Lecture on autoimmune disease.

In honor of the Knapps' longstanding support for the biological sciences, the University will also name the Knapp Research Complex: a cluster of buildings including the new Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, the Jules F. Knapp Research Center, and the Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center.

Jules Knapp, a prominent Chicago entrepreneur, began his business education by delivering newspapers at the age of ten. He moved on to delivering groceries when he reached 13. At 15 he became a stock boy at Marshall Fields and at 17 he sold shoes for a major chain.

In 1962, at the age of 34, he started his own paint business, United Coatings. He was one of the first paint producers to market to mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart. In 1994 United Coatings merged with Pratt and Lambert, which was purchased by Sherwin-Williams in 1996.

Knapp recently repeated his early success by purchasing Grisham Manufacturing, a maker of steel security and storm doors, in 2000. He turned the ailing company around by improving production and customer service and establishing new sales relationships with retail giants Home Depot and Lowe's.

Despite hard work and commensurate good luck, the Knapps' personal lives have been touched by tragedy. Their daughter, Joy Faith Knapp, who inherited her parents' wisdom, entrepreneurial talent and enthusiasm, suffered for many years from lupus, a poorly understood auto-immune disorder. She died in 2000 at age 37 from complications of lupus nephritis.

About one-third of the building's research space will be devoted to the Institute for Molecular Pediatric Science, which will house up to 50 research teams. Physician-scientists in the Institute, known on campus as IMPS, will explore childhood diseases at the most basic level to reveal, understand, and leverage universal principles that apply to both children and adults.

One floor of the Center, about 30,000 gross square feet, will be devoted to cancer research with particular emphasis on understanding metastasis, the process by which cancers spread from the original tumor to distant sites. It will provide a new headquarters for the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center and a home for the Ludwig Center for Metastasis Research, which will focus on understanding metastasis. Another floor will house the Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, which will provide state-of-the-art genomics technologies to support basic and translational research.

The Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery was designed by the award-winning Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership of Los Angeles, California, to provide open, efficient and flexible spaces for laboratories and offices and to encourage contact and cooperation within each lab and between different lab groups. In addition to the research spaces, it will feature a garden courtyard, conference and lecture halls, and several multi-story public and common spaces, designed to enhance the exchange of ideas between floors.

Although most campus buildings top out at five-to-seven stories, this will be the first of several taller clinical or research structures planned for the northwest end of campus. "This is a 'plant-the-flag' building," said architect Dusty Rhoads of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca. "It sets the tone for a new precinct."  

The design combines a limestone, neogothic base, reflecting the campus heritage, with the open, airy feel of glass-curtain walls higher up. To lighten the visual impact, the architects varied the shape, glass designs and textures to emphasize the building's open, translucent qualities rather than its height. The serrated west wall, for example, gives each office a view north to the central city, as well as west over Washington Park.

Construction of the building began in October of 2005 and should be complete by the spring of 2008. Total cost of the facility will be $160 million. Additional funding for the building will come from the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, The University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation, University resources, borrowing and an ongoing philanthropic campaign.

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Hebrew University and Yissum Establish Research Partnership With Johnson & Johnson

A fund for innovative science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been established by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Authority for Research and Development; Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University; and the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology. The contribution from Johnson & Johnson will be matched by the university and Yissum.

The purpose of the fund is to identify and encourage innovative research ideas at the Hebrew University. The focus will be on propositions which have the greatest potential for becoming major scientific breakthroughs, or to be of great commercial possibility. The research projects will be decided upon jointly by a board of overseers chosen by the sponsoring parties.

The fund was officially launched at a gathering to be held on Thursday, Feb. 9, at the offices of the Authority for Research and Development.

Participants at the event will include top officials from Johnson & Johnson, Yissum and the Hebrew University, including the deans of the faculties of agriculture, medicine and science.

Among those who will be speaking at the meeting are Prof. Hervé Bercovier, vice president for research and development at the Hebrew University, who will present an overview of ongoing research at the Hebrew University, including the new center for converging sciences, as well as an overview of research proposals submitted to the new fund. Prof. Hermona Soreq, Prof. Howard Cedar and other senior Hebrew University researchers will also present summaries of their work on scientific breakthroughs in the fields of cancer research, neurodegenerative diseases and bionanotechnology.

[ FYI Index ]

Republic of China Push for First Rate Universities

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of China announced its plans to focus on making two universities “internationally first rate”. Those schools, The National Taiwan University and the National Cheng Kung University will receive 1.7 Billon Taiwan New Dollars (US$52.5 million) per year for the next four years. There is the potential that this funding would be renewed for another five years.

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