Gyorgy Kepes, Institute Professor emeritus and founder of MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, has received several high honors this past year. The Consul General of Hungary recently visited Professor Kepes, a native of Hungary, in his Cambridge home to award him the Middle Cross and the Medal of Honor of the Republic of Hungary in recognition of his lifelong services to humanity. The presentation was made on behalf of the President of Hungary.
In September 1996, in honor of Professor Kepes's 90th birthday, participants at the First International Light Symposium in Eger, Hungary formed the International Kepes Society. Calling him an "international cultural treasure," the Society aims to continue his work exploring the relationship between modern science and technology and the arts.
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Architect Friedrich St. Florian, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies from 1971-77, won a nationwide design competition sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission for a national World War II memorial planned for the National Mall in Washington, DC. President Clinton unveiled the winning design, selected from more than 400 submissions, in January. Professor St. Florian, a distinguished professor and former dean of the Rhode Island School of Design, heads Friedrich St. Florian, Architect, an award-winning architectural design firm in Providence, RI. The memorial features a sunken plaza framed by high stone walls and 50 fluted columns representing the states of the union. The monument is scheduled to be dedicated on Veterans Day in 2000.
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Nam Suh, the Ralph and Eloise Cross Professor of Mechanical Engineering and head of that department, is the winner of the 1997 Ho-Am Prize in Engineering. He was recognized for his contributions to manufacturing research including polymer processing, metals processing and tribology, and particularly for his internationally acclaimed work on axiomatic design theory. Professor Suh was also lauded for his work on technology transfer to industry, and service to US government agencies, the United Nations and the World Bank. He was architect of the 1980 five-year economic development plan for the Republic of Korea.
The Ho-am Prizes were established in memory of the founder of the Samsung Group in Korea, Byoung-chul Lee, to honor individuals who have contributed to the improvement of society through work in their respective fields. Prizes are awarded to Koreans (including those with foreign citizenship) in basic science, engineering, medical science, the arts, mass communication and social services.
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The Web version of MIT Sloan R.O.I., the Sloan School of Management's multimedia news publication, won the bronze award in the CASE District 1 (Northeastern US) publications competition in February. The judging criteria for the award included "the overall effectiveness of sites in communicating information, ease of use, availability of appropriate links and opportunities for interaction."
CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of Education) is an association of alumni administrators, fund-raisers, public relations managers, publications editors and government relations officers at colleges, universities and independent elementary and secondary schools in 29 countries.
MIT Sloan R.O.I. is located online at <http://web.mit.edu/roi>. The site was created last year by the Sloan Office of Communication team of David Lampe, Paul Michelman and Janice Zazinski.
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The American College of Nuclear Medicine has elected Gordon Brownell, professor emeritus and senior research fellow in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, an honorary fellow in recognition of his "significant contributions to the field of nuclear medicine." Professor Brownell is also a physicist in the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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Professors Harry L. Tuller of materials science and engineering, director of the Crystal Physics and Electro-ceramics Laboratory, and Victor Guillemin of mathematics have been elected as recipients of Humboldt Research Awards for senior US scientists. The award provides for an extended research stay in Germany.
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Two faculty members in the Department of Chemistry, Professor Christopher (Kit) Cummins and Assistant Professor Gregory C. Fu, have been awarded Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. The program, established in 1955, awards two-year fellowships to young faculty members who have demonstrated great research potential in the physical sciences, economics, mathematics and neuroscience.
Professor Cummins's research focuses on use of specially designed compounds of the transition metals to achieve unprecedented chemical transformations. Professor Fu (SB '85) researches development of new reagents and methods for organic chemistry, with an emphasis on asymmetric catalysis and elucidation of reaction mechanisms.
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Professor of Music Lowell E. Lindgren, who received one of three MacVicar Faculty Fellowships last month, has been named the sixth recipient of the Luise Vosger-chian Teaching Award, established in 1986 by Professor Ray Goldberg and Thelma Goldberg, and the Max Goldberg Foundation, in order to honor one of the best-loved teachers of music at Harvard. Professor Vosgerchian is now the Walter Naumberg Professor emerita.
Professor Lindgren is the first musicologist and the second Harvard alumnus to win this award, which recognizes his "selfless commitment, artistic conscience, constant renewal of approach to subject matter, ability to motivate creatively, interest in developing the whole person, and presentation of musical knowledge in a way that is applicable to other disciplines."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 5, 1997.
