Awards and Honors

Twelve junior faculty members have been selected to receive awards this year in the third annual competition for research support from the Hellman Family Faculty Fund. Awards were made based on the excellence of the proposed research, without regard to the popularity of the field of study. As in previous years, panel members looked for evidence of exciting, creative research and for new ideas, paradigms and theories. The 1997 recipients and their study subjects are: Lars Bildsten, physics and astronomy: Temporal Variability in Stellar Astrophysics John G. Flannery, optometry: Gene Therapy Approaches to Treatment of Inherited Retinal Degenerations Allen Goldstein, environmental science, policy and management: A Field-Based Study of Sierra Nevada Forest Response to Anthropogenic Ozone and Nitrogen Deposition Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, history of art: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France Priya Joshi, English: Gifts of Empire: British Popular Fiction and the Development of the Novel in India Susan Marqusee, molecular and cell biology: Biological Sciences Dissection of the Protein Folding Problem James J. McCusker, chemistry: Electron Exchange Coupling in Cluster-Bridged Donor-Acceptor Complexes: Implications for Biological Electron Transfer John H. McWhorter, linguistics/African American studies: Mar-tinique Creole Research Project Anne Nesbet, Slavic languages and literatures/film: The Dialectical Image Lisa A. Pruitt, mechanical engineering: Surface Modification of UHMWPE for wear resistance of Total Knee Replacements Zi Quiang Qiu, physics: Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Nanostructures Rachel Schurman, Energy and Resources Group: Resource-Based Growth in a Global Economy Application information for Hellman Family Faculty Fund awards is found on the Office of the Vice Provost's home page, http://cois.chance.berkeley.edu/vprovost/. Seven faculty members received awards this year from the Faculty Research Fund for the Biological Sciences. This year is the first year of the fund, created by a $5 million gift from anonymous donors. Its purpose is to maintain and enhance the quality of biological research on the campus by providing short-term support for feasibility studies and equipment needs. Awards will be given annually. The three-person selection committee appointed last spring solicited "coherent and specific research proposals" that "demonstrated research excellence and a documented need in an underfunded project." The first-time recipients and their study subjects are: Gregory Aponte, nutritional science: Neuropeptide Regulation of Intestinal Epithelial Cell Differentiation Tracy Benning, ESPM-ecosystem sciences: Regeneration of Blue Oak in California Oak Woodlands Zacheus Cande, molecular and cell biology: Matching Funds for Purchase of Transmission Electron Microscope Kathy Collins, molecular and cell biology: Functional Reconstitution of Native and Recombinant Tetrahymena Telomerase Gregory Gilbert, ESPM-ecosystem sciences: Epidemiology of Invasive Tree Diseases in Panama and California Harry Greene, integrative biology: Molecular Approaches to the Evolutionary Ecology of Venomous Snakes David Lindberg, integrative biology: Molluscan Evolutionary Patterns and Processes   Professor John Harte has been appointed to the Class of 1935 Chair in Energy. The Class of 1935 established this endowment fund in 1985, as their gift to the university in honor of the class's 50th anniversary. The chair fosters basic research with an emphasis on the production of energy from renewable resources. The chair is not restricted to a single college or school and the chair holder is appointed by the chancellor. Harte is the author of over 100 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals and five books. He has distinguished himself in the areas of global change, energy and water resources, ecology, biogeochemistry, ecotoxicology, acid rain, environmental issues in developing nations and the economic value of ecosystems. His past honors include a fellowship in the American Physical Society, He received the 1990 Pew Scholars Prize in Environment and Biological Conservation. In 1993, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and was elected to the California Academy of Sciences. Richard S. Muller, professor in the Graduate School and a member of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences faculty, received the 1997 Career Achievement Award, given by the 9th International Conference on Sensors and Actuators, "Transducers '97." The award, presented for the first time this summer at the organi-zation's conference in Chicago, honors the lifetime accomplishments of individuals in the field of micro-sensors, microactuators and micro-electro-mechanical systems. Muller earned his PhD in electrical engineering and physics at the California Institute of Technology in 1962 and joined the faculty that same year.