Three MIT scientists have been elected to the rank of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The AAAS Council each year elects as Fellows members "whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished."
The new MIT Fellows are:
Professor Aron M. Bernstein of physics, honored for "a broad range of research contributions in nuclear physics and for the teaching of graduate and undergraduate students."
Professor Rick L. Danheiser of chemistry, honored for "pioneering research in the development of new methods for organic synthesis."
Professor Robert L. Jaffe of physics, honored for "seminal contributions to the understanding of the quark structure of hadrons through pioneering research in quark models and deep inelastic scattering."
The California Caucus of College and University Ombuds has awarded Dr. Mary P. Rowe, MIT's ombudsperson, its Pete Small Award, given to the Ombudsperson of the Year.
Dr. Rowe, special assistant to the president of MIT and adjunct professor of negotiation and conflict at the Sloan School, is a long-term member of the CCCUO and an internationally recognized leader in the field of ombudsing.
The CCCUO, an international organization, established the Ombudsperson of the Year award in 1991 in memory of Francis Xavier (Pete) Small, the first staff ombudsperson at the University of California at Berkeley. It is given annually to the member who demonstrates excellence in academic ombudsing through practice, research, writing or other valued contributions to the profession and to the CCCUO.
Dr. Rowe was a co-founder and first president of the Corporate Ombudsman Association, now the Ombudsman Association. She has helped establish ombuds offices in dozens of corporations, government agencies and academic institutions, and has helped design several integrated dispute resolution systems.
Dr. Harri K. Kytomaa, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and his recent PhD student, Dr. Chris M. Atkinson, have been selected to receive the Moody Award by the Fluids Engineering Division of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Dr. Atkinson is now on the faculty at West Virginia University in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department.
The award recognizes the best paper presented to the division within the last two years dealing with a topic useful in mechanical engineering practice.
Their paper, "Acoustic Properties of Solid-Liquid Mixtures and the Limits of Ultrasound Diagnostic I: Experiments, was published in the Journal of Fluids Engineering in June 1993. In it, the authors report on their investigation of the spatial resolution and beam penetration as a function of frequency for a range of solids concentration. They then used the knowledge gained from their experiment to design and build a prototype ultrasonic Doppler velocimeter that will measure the velocity of particles in high concentrations.
Joyce Wong, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering's Program in Polymer Science and Technology, received the Graduate Student Award at the fall 1993 meeting of the Materials Research Society. She was recognized for outstanding performance in the conduct of research and for her paper, "Cell Interactions with Electrically Conducting Polypyrrole Thin Films." Co-authors were Donald Ingber and Professor Robert Langer. More than 3,000 papers were presented in 26 technical symposia. The conference was held in Boston in December.
An alumnus with four MIT degrees was the only American elected a Fellow by the British Royal Academy of Engineering this year. He is Dr. Reuven Leopold of Potomac, MD, who was selected for his achievements as a designer of US Navy ships, particularly his innovations in hull design and hydrodynamics. Dr. Leopold received the SB in naval architecture and marine engineering in 1961, the SM in 1963, the degree of Marine Mechanical Engineer in 1965 and the PhD in 1977.
Dr. Lawrence M. Wein, associate professor of management at the Sloan School, received the Erlang Prize at a recent joint meeting of the Institute of Management Sciences and the Operations Research Society of America. The prize, awarded this year for the first time, will be given every two years to the person deemed by the groups to be the outstanding applied probabilist in the nation under the age of 35.
Alexander Rich, William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics in the Department of Biology, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Switzerland last month.
Professor Rich is one of eight people to receive an honorary degree from ETH this year. Of the eight, three (including Dr. Rich) are Americans.
Dr. Rich's honorary doctorate "represents an expression of our admiration for a great scientist whose studies of chemical processes in biological systems have contributed greatly to the coalescence of chemistry and biology that has occurred in the second half of our century," according to the citation that accompanied the award.
"It is difficult to name any area of nucleic acid research that has not been influenced by [Professor] Rich's contributions," the citation said.
Further, "for many years [Professor] Rich has been active in formulating science public policy in the United States and in furthering international scientific cooperation."
The citation noted that Professor Rich "has had close personal contacts with the ETH, which he has visited on many occasions for lectures and scientific discussions. Indeed, many lines of research pursued [at ETH] have their origins in the seminal contributions from [Professor] Rich's laboratory."
Past MIT recipients of honorary degrees from ETH include Professor Emeritus George H. Buchi of chemistry (1987), and the late Alvar Aalto, a visiting professor of architecture (1963).
ETH was founded in 1855, and is similar to MIT in that it "covers all fields of science and engineering," Professor Rich said.
Also from mechanical engineering comes word that Professor Emeritus Stephen H. Crandall received the American Academy of Mechanics Medal for distinguished service to the field of theoretical and applied mechanics at the winter meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Dr. Crandall, Ford Professor of Engineering Emeritus, was cited "for distinguished pedagogical and research contributions" and for "service in promoting the crucial role of mechanics in the Americas."
A version of this article appeared in the January 26, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 20).
