University News

Professor Edmund S. Phelps Wins 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics

Edmund S. Phelps, McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University and director, Center on Capitalism and Society at the Earth Institute, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday, October 9 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Phelps won the award – officially named the Sviriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences – for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy.

The Academy noted that the work of Edmund Phelps has deepened our understanding of the relation between short-run and long-run effects of economic policy. His contributions have had a decisive impact on economic research as well as policy. Phelps showed how the possibilities of stabilization policy in the future depend on today's policy decisions: low inflation today leads to expectations of low inflation also in the future, thereby facilitating future policy making.

Low unemployment and low inflation are central goals of stabilization policy. During the 1950s and 1960s the view of a stable tradeoff between inflation and unemployment was established, the so-called Phillips curve. According to this, the price for reduced unemployment was a one-time increase of the inflation rate. Phelps challenged this view through a more fundamental analysis of the determination of wages and prices, taking into account problems of information in the economy. Individual agents have incomplete knowledge about the actions of others and must base their decisions on expectations. Phelps formulated the hypothesis of the expectations-augmented Phillips curve, according to which inflation depends on both unemployment and inflation expectations.

As a consequence, the long-run rate of unemployment is not affected by inflation but only determined by the functioning of the labor market. It follows that stabilization policy can only dampen short-term fluctuations in unemployment.

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Bertil Andersson To Be Appointed Provost at Nanyang Technological University

Representatives of Nanyang Technological University announced the appointment of Professor Bertil Andersson as provost. Professor Andersson will assume office on April 1, 2007. This is a new position at NTU and his appointment is the result of an international search by the university, during which many distinguished academic leaders were considered.

Professor Andersson brings to NTU an extensive set of experiences and accomplishments in academe and research. Since January 2004, Andersson has been the Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation (ESF), where he was responsible for the coordination of various scientific funding actions with national research funding organizations. Andersson was elected Vice President of European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) in early 2005.

Prior to his appointment at ESF, Andersson held the position of Rector of Linköping University in Sweden1 . He is a Professor of Biochemistry at Linköping University and is a visiting Professor and a Fellow of Imperial College London. Professor Andersson has been a member of the boards of several Swedish and international foundations and learned societies. He is also an advisor to the Swedish Minister of Education and Science. He was a member of the Nobel Foundation Board and the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, serving as the Committee’s Chairman in 1997. Professor Andersson is now a Trustee of the Nobel Foundation.

His research has focused on molecular aspects of plants, in particular structure, function and regulation of photosynthesis, as published in about 300 articles in international journals. In his research he has frequently interacted with the biotech industry.

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NIH Launches National Consortium to Transform Clinical Research

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., announced the launch of a national consortium that will transform how clinical and translational research is conducted, ultimately enabling researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients. This new consortium, funded through Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs), begins with 12 academic health centers (AHCs) located throughout the nation. An additional 52 AHCs are receiving planning grants to help them prepare applications to join the consortium. When fully implemented in 2012, about 60 institutions will be linked together to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science.

Applicants were encouraged to develop institutes, centers or departments for these awards and were challenged to devise innovative and far-reaching approaches to build academic homes for clinical and translational science. In response, the CTSA institutions are planning to:

• Develop better designs for clinical trials to ensure that patients with rare as well as common diseases benefit from new medical therapies
• Produce enriched environments to educate and develop the next generation of researchers trained in the complexities of translating research discoveries into clinical trials and ultimately into practice
• Design new and improved clinical research informatics tools
• Expand outreach efforts to minority and medically underserved communities
• Assemble interdisciplinary teams that cover the complete spectrum of research — biology, clinical medicine, dentistry, nursing, biomedical engineering, genomics, and population sciences
• Forge new partnerships with private and public health care organizations

The CTSA initiative grew out of the NIH commitment to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise, one of the key objectives of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. The CTSA consortium will be led by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the NIH. Funding for the CTSA initiative comes from redirecting existing clinical and translational programs, including Roadmap funds. Total first year funding for the awards announced today will be approximately $100 million. When fully implemented in 2012, the initiative is expected to provide a total of $500 million annually to 60 academic health centers.
The following institutions will receive the first set of awards for nearly a five-year period:

• Columbia University Health Sciences (New York, N.Y.)
• Duke University (Durham N.C.)
• Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester, Minn.)
• Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, Ore.)
• Rockefeller University (New York, N.Y.)
• University of California, Davis (Davis. Calif.)
• University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco, Calif.)
• University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
• University of Rochester (Rochester, N.Y.)
• University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Houston, Texas)
• Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

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Jay Precourt Commits $30 Million to Fund Stanford Energy Efficiency Institute

Stanford University alumnus Jay A. Precourt has committed $30 million to establish the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at the university. The gift will provide program funds, endow new energy-related faculty positions and help support Stanford's new Environment and Energy Building currently under construction.

The Precourt Institute's mission is to improve the efficiency of energy use. It will emphasize research, decision-making and policy in the discovery and adoption of energy-efficient technologies, systems and practices. Initial work will focus on improving energy efficiency in buildings, the transportation sector, fuels and power distribution.

Precourt holds bachelor's and master's degrees in petroleum engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard University. He has spent his career in the energy industry, holding executive positions at Hamilton Oil Co., Tejas Gas Corp., Shell Oil Co. (which acquired Tejas in 1997), ScissorTail Energy LLC and, most recently, Hermes Consolidated Inc., a gatherer, transporter and processor of crude oil and refined products. He has served as chair and chief executive officer of Hermes since 1999. He also serves as a director of the Halliburton and Apache corporations.

The Precourt Institute will work closely with Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment, the interdisciplinary hub for the university-wide Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability, and with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

James L. Sweeney, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute and professor of management science and engineering in the School of Engineering, will serve as the Precourt Institute's inaugural director. Sweeney also is a senior fellow at SIEPR, the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. His work involves analyzing economic and policy issues, especially those involving energy systems and/or the environment. Sweeney also serves on the National Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is a member of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Council of Economic Advisors. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1971.

The Precourt Institute will play an integrating role within Stanford to bring together researchers from the sciences and engineering with those in the social sciences, decision sciences and organizational theory, Sweeney added. In particular, the institute will draw heavily from numerous departments and organizations within the university, including management science and engineering, economics, civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, law, business, SIEPR and the Hoover Institution.

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UT System Research Executive Announces Resignation

Robert Barnhill, vice chancellor for research and technology transfer for The University of Texas System, announced his resignation effective December 1.

The UT System Office of Research and Technology Transfer was established by Chancellor Mark Yudof in 2005. The office is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to expand and enhance research funding at UT System institutions. This office is also responsible for developing special research opportunities for UT System institutions through collaborations with federal labs.

Arjuna Sanga, associate vice chancellor for research and technology transfer, will serve as interim vice chancellor effective December 1, according to Yudof. A national search will be conducted by the UT System to find a permanent successor.
Barnhill came to the UT System in April 2005. He previously served as the senior research officer at the University of Kansas from 1997 to 2005. From 1991 to 1997 he was vice president for research at Arizona State University, a period in which ASU was designated a top tier research university. Previously, Barnhill was a professor of mathematics at the University of Utah for 22 years. His research specialty is scientific computer modeling and visualization. Dr. Barnhill's wife, Marigold Linton, is director of Math & Science Initiatives for the UT System's Institute for Public School Initiatives.

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Caltech, UC Berkeley to Investigate How Brain Activity Controls Complex Behavior

A new $4.4-million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, to develop techniques to turn brain cells on and off in animals as they go about their daily activities, allowing the scientists to understand the details of how brain activity leads to complex behaviors.
According to principal investigator Michael Dickinson, the Zarem Professor of Bioengineering at Caltech, the five-year program is aimed at solving one of the remaining great challenges facing biologists--understanding the mechanistic basis of complex behavior. The work will focus on fruit flies, which are a powerful model system understood extremely well at the genetic level.

The work will involve experiments in which the activity of specific cells in the nervous systems of fruit flies can be controlled using light. "The idea is to bioengineer ion channels that can be opened and closed with light flashes," Dickinson explains. "By controlling these genetically engineered ion channels, we can directly manipulate the electrical impulses that nervous systems use to sense and process information.

A fly might be engineered, for example, to begin flying or walking when pulsed with light of a certain wavelength. But this would be a means to a scientific goal and not the ultimate goal itself.

"This is one way of tapping into the fly and making cells do what we want them to do in order to test specific hypotheses about brain structure and behavior," Dickinson says. David Anderson, a coprincipal investigator and the Sperry Professor of Biology at Caltech, will work to place the light-controlled ion channels within as many unique cells in the flies' nervous systems as possible.

Prior work on the cellular basis of behavior has focused on how networks of brain cells may control simple behaviors such as swimming, flying, and feeding. The new work will probe these behaviors at a deeper level, attempting to figure out how nervous systems-and possibly even individual nervous-system cells-regulate simpler motor actions over time and space to generate more complex behaviors.

A central goal of the research will be to determine how a nervous system uses sensory data to process changes in a complex set of behaviors. Thus, the scientists will not only study the details of how the flies' sensory-based locomotion (walking and flying) works, but how their locomotion is related to crucial survival activities such as looking for food, seeking mates, laying eggs, searching for shelter, and getting out of harm's way.

"We will begin with the assumption that an animal's own natural behavior is the best context in which to interpret how its nervous system is built," Dickinson says. "The first step is to gather quantitative behavioral information concerning the external and internal cues that cause flies to change or modulate what they are doing.

"The next step is to gain experimental access to the specific cells that control these behavioral transitions, so we will develop genetically engineered flies that allow us to control the neurons that send information from the sensory areas of the brain to the circuits that generate and control movement. We will also study how gene expression controls and alters brain wiring.

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Shu Chien and Chauncey Starr Receive Honors from National Academy of Engineering

During its 2006 annual meeting, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will present two awards for exceptional achievement. NAE's Founders Award will be given to Shu Chien, who forged the field of biomedical engineering, and the Arthur M. Bueche Award will be given to Chauncey Starr for pioneering the development of nuclear fission reactors and the field of risk analysis. The prizes will be presented at a ceremony to be held on Sunday, Oct. 15.

Chien is an NAE member, Y.C. Fung Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and University Professor for the University of California system. He will receive the Founders Award "for outstanding contributions to elucidating the engineering foundation of cardiovascular dynamics, and integrating engineering and biomedical sciences for the development of the biomedical engineering profession." The award recognizes outstanding professional, educational, and personal achievement to the benefit of society, and it includes $2,500 and a gold medallion.
Although trained as a physician, Chien has made extensive contributions to bioengineering, especially in cellular, molecular, and cardiovascular bioengineering and related fields. In the 1960s, while on the faculty at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, he was one of the few physiologists to apply engineering principles and techniques to the study of biological systems. His interdisciplinary approach enabled Chien to better understand hemodynamics -- the forces generated by the heart and movement of blood through the cardiovascular system -- and the regulation mechanisms of blood rheology, which looks at how blood deforms and flows when stress is applied. His model of blood rheology was the first to elucidate its determinants, and he later applied the basic knowledge gained from these discoveries to understand cardiovascular and other diseases, such as sickle cell anemia.

Chien went on to combine his knowledge of cardiovascular dynamics and blood rheology to examine microcirculation, where the critical exchange between blood and tissue occurs, and figured out how blood cells and their interaction with the vessel walls govern flow dynamics. Chien used these discoveries to explain the mechanisms of hemorrhage and shock, and the cardiovascular benefits of exercise. He described the effects of hemodynamic forces on transendothelial transport of macromolecules and proposed the enduring "cell turnover-leaky junction" theory to describe susceptibility to atherosclerosis.
Chien's more recent research at UCSD has brought about a novel and detailed understanding of how mechanical forces of blood flow affect cell signalling and gene expression, and how cells adapt to their physical environment. This pioneering work has far-reaching implications for bioengineering and particularly for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Chien is also designing molecular techniques to prevent and mitigate complications following balloon angioplasty, and to analyze how the vascular system responds to procedures used to treat coronary artery occlusion. In addition, he is examining how cell signals are coordinated and function over time.

Chien transformed our understanding of cells and tissues and their physical mechanisms, demonstrating that biological systems are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry. Chien's rich contributions to fundamental and applied bioengineering research are documented in some 450 peer-reviewed publications and nine books, and are recognized through numerous engineering and life-science awards and named lectureships. Furthermore, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers has twice presented Chien with the Melville Medal for the best original paper among its 20 Transactions journals; Chien is the only two-time winner of this honor.

At UCSD, Chien has been instrumental to building one of the country's top bioengineering programs. He founded and directs the Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering, which facilitates research collaboration in biology, medicine, and engineering. Chien also led the formation of the Bioengineering Institute of California, a project of the University of California system that involves all 10 UC campuses and many other universities to disseminate bioengineering research. Chien has served as president for several professional societies, including the American Physiological Society, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the International Society of Biorheology, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and he is currently president-elect of the Biomedical Engineering Society. His professional activities show the widespread admiration he has received from both life scientists and engineers. Moreover, Chien is one of only six living NAE members to also hold membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.

Starr, a member of NAE and president emeritus of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), will be presented the Arthur M. Bueche Award "for leadership in the development of nuclear power, contributions to the creation of the field of risk analysis, and leadership in electric power R&D as the founding president of EPRI." He will receive $2,500 and a gold medallion in recognition of his statesmanship in U.S. public policy on technology and for promoting ties among academia, industry, and government.

Soon after receiving his Ph.D., Starr began to distinguish himself with research on thermal conductivity of metals at high pressure and on the characteristics of materials under cryogenic conditions. He relied on ingenuity to carry out his experiments, for he had to design and build much of the special electronic equipment himself. As World War II intensified in Europe, Starr accepted a call to use his talents at the U.S. Navy's David Taylor Model Basin, where he found ways to protect vessels from the effects of underwater mine explosions and sweep for these explosive devices.

In 1942, Ernest O. Lawrence invited Starr to join the Radiation Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley, where scientists and engineers were racing to find a practical method for separating U-235 from other uranium isotopes before the Nazis did. At the "Rad Lab," Starr used his skills in designing complex equipment to help create the "calutron" -- an electromagnetic separator that was the first device to produce significant quantities of U-235. Lawrence selected Starr to direct technical development and operations of the calutron pilot plant for the Oak Ridge, Tenn., Manhattan Engineering District (the "Manhattan Project"), where electromagnetic separation soon produced the fissionable material for the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima.

Starr had begun to think about peaceful uses of "atomic power," and once the war had ended, he began to work on nuclear reactor designs at the Clinton Laboratory (which later became Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and then nuclear power propulsion systems for North American Aviation (later North American Rockwell Corp.). Starr, with Walter Zinn of Argonne National Laboratory, soon began to design a reactor for electricity production. The Atomic Energy Commission awarded North American a contract for plant construction, and Starr led the project as president of the newly formed Atomics International Division and corporate vice president of North American Rockwell. Over a period of 20 years, Starr was one of the leaders in the commercial development of nuclear power.

In 1966, Starr became dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He structured the engineering program so that students would be exposed to many fields of engineering, and he recruited promising young faculty who were conducting innovative research in new fields. While dean, Starr published a landmark paper, "Social Benefit versus Technological Risk" (Science, 1979), which employed holistic, quantitative research and effectively initiated the interdisciplinary field of risk analysis. He also examined the historical relationship between energy and social structure, and how effective energy use and electrification have contributed to long-term social change (Scientific American, 1972).

After blackouts, warfare, and new environmental protections revealed weaknesses in energy infrastructure, leaders of the power industry enlisted Starr to build an institute for energy R&D activities. Beginning with a staff of two, Starr established the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in 1973, a unique organization that would tackle the industry's most urgent and thorny problems through central management of collaboratively funded activities using the best talent worldwide. EPRI quickly became renowned for innovations in technologies such as fluidized-bed coal combustion, coal-gasification combined-cycle generation, transmission systems, wind turbines, solar generation technologies, and zero-net carbon balance biomass generation. EPRI's research on environmental impacts and efficiency affected the behavior of both energy producers and consumers and brought about significant improvements. "Looking ahead," said Starr, "our electricity supply will face complex challenges such as meeting increasing demand, reliability, efficiency, and modernization of infrastructure."
After the accident at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, nuclear power industry leaders approached Starr to create an institute to address safe operating procedures and analysis at nuclear plants. He wrote the charter for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, whose standards have been adopted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The organization became the model for the World Nuclear Power Operations, established after the Chernobyl accident.

Starr's statesmanship and intellectual integrity have long been recognized with positions of leadership and awards. He is a founder, fellow, and past director and president of the American Nuclear Society. He has served the NAE as councilor and vice president. Starr was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor, and he has received the U.S. Energy Award and the National Medal of Technology.

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MIT and Portugal to Launch Major Research and Education Initiative

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education announced Wednesday plans to enter into a long-term collaboration to significantly expand research and education in engineering and management across many of Portugal's top national universities.

The wide-ranging initiative will be the broadest of its kind ever undertaken by the government of Portugal and will involve professors, researchers and students from a consortia of schools of engineering, science and technology, economics and management at seven different Portuguese universities, together with a large number of research centers, associated laboratories and state laboratories.

The long-term collaboration was designed based on an assessment study conducted by MIT from February to July 2006 that involved several faculties at MIT and concluded that "…the excellence of the research identified in Portuguese research centers throughout the assessment exercise recommends that MIT foster joint ventures with Portuguese institutions.
With participation of more than 40 faculty from all five schools at MIT, the MIT-Portugal Program will undertake research and education in several focus areas.

The educational and research initiatives will give MIT an opportunity to gain insight into the planning, design and implementation of transportation, energy, manufacturing and bioengineering systems in Portugal, all critical sectors of the global economy. Faculty will be encouraged to make new educational material publicly available through MIT OpenCourseWare.

The MIT-Portugal Program is part of a major initiative undertaken by the Portuguese government to strengthen the country's knowledge base at an international level through a strategic investment in people, knowledge and ideas.

The program was announced at a public session headed by Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates and attended by senior MIT administrators and leaders from Portuguese institutions involved in the collaboration.

The leading role of this long-term collaboration has also been emphasized by Jose Mariano Gago, the Portuguese minister of science, technology and higher education, for whom "the Portugal-MIT Program will bring new blood and will provide new challenges to the very fast and impressive growth of Portuguese science and technology."

Portuguese Secretary of State Manuel Heitor also noted that "the MIT-Portugal Program will promote a new research and education agenda on engineering systems, involving consortia of Portuguese universities and giving emphasis to large-scale systems that not only have critical technological components, but also have significant enterprise and socio-technical level interactions, in a way that will promote new engineering research in Europe."

MIT's Engineering Systems Division (ESD), an interdisciplinary unit at MIT with faculty from engineering, management and the social sciences, which provides an integrative perspective to large-scale complex systems that have a major societal and economic impact, will coordinate the engineering aspect of the MIT-Portugal Program. The program will be of enormous benefit to ESD as it works with Portugal to develop engineering systems as a new field of study that will have major social and economic impact in the 21st century.

Each of the thematic focus areas in manufacturing, transportation, energy and bio-engineering will involve a new companion effort, "MIT-Portugal Industrial affiliates," with the goal of fostering new research consortia in collaboration with MIT, leading to new frontiers of transatlantic collaboration in science and technology. Manufacturing will launch the first affiliates program with a set of leading companies in the automotive sector, including VW AutoEuropa, the largest car assembler in Portugal and major auto parts manufacturers.

The MIT-Portugal Program also has an engineering systems component that integrates the focus areas and develops fundamental concepts of engineering systems. Portugal and MIT ESD will work together to broaden engineering education and practice and to create a new field of study and research in engineering. A new research area will be created within the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation to facilitate achieving these purposes. An important focus of this work will be to examine how universities, industry and government can work together to utilize the results of the MIT-Portugal Program, both in Portugal and at MIT.

The MIT-Portugal Program in the area of engineering systems will be led by Professor Daniel Roos, founding director of MIT's ESD, and Professor Paulo Manuel Cadete Ferrão, director of the Center For Innovation, Technology and Policy Research at Instituto Superior Técnico, the Technical University of Lisbon.

In an effort to determine the extent of the collaboration and program content of the management segment of the MIT-Portugal Program, MIT's Sloan School of Management faculty will collaborate with faculty from Portuguese universities for a nine-month exploration of program development.

Initial discussions will focus on the design of a Global M.B.A. Program with leading business schools in Portugal; the development of a mid-career program in entrepreneurship, bringing together leading business and engineering schools; and the launching of a program of seminars in the form of a "Lisbon-Sloan Seminar Series in Management Science." It will involve the Portuguese Catholic University, the School of Economics and Management at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the ISCTE Business School, and the School of Economics and Management at the Technical University of Lisbon.