AWARDS

17 January 2001

Jon Andrus
The United States Public Health Service has awarded its Distinguished Service Medal to Jon Andrus, an associate adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF; Andrus is also a member of the Institute for Global Health, a joint effort run by UCSF and Berkeley. Given to a U.S. Public Health Service officer whose efforts have made a major impact on world health, the award recognizes Andrus's effective campaign against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases in Southeast Asia, where 70 percent of the world's reported polio cases are found.

Geoffrey Marcy
The National Academy of Sciences will award Professor Geoffrey Marcy the prestigious Henry Draper Medal on April 30 during the academy's 138th meeting. The academy awards the Draper Medal every four years to individuals who have made a significant contribution to astronomical physics. It was established through the Draper Fund and was first awarded in 1886. Marcy was cited by the academy "for pioneering investigations of planets orbiting other stars via high-precision radial velocities." A decade ago, finding planets orbiting other stars was the stuff of science fiction. But that has changed. Since 1995, Marcy and his colleagues have discovered 38 of the 53 known extrasolar planets. Their joint finds include the only planet thus far observed to transit a host star, two sub-Saturn mass planets and, announced earlier this week, a multiple-planet system that may alter our current definition of the term planet.

Thirteen faculty are recipients of Hellman 2000 awards
Thirteen assistant professors have been named recipients of the Hellman Family Faculty Fund 2000 Awards. Established by F. Warren Hellman in 1995, the fund provides support for assistant professors in the physical and life sciences, engineering, arts, humanities and social sciences who show the promise of great distinction in their research. The maximum award is $50,000. The 2000 awardees, who received a total of $300,000 in research support, and their fields, colleges and departments, are:

• Biological sciences: Rebecca Heald, MCB, Cell and Developmental Biology; Qiang Zhou, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology;
• Chemistry: Kristie Boering, Chemistry/Geology & Geophysics;
• Engineering: Xu Liang, Civil and Environmental Engineering;
• Nutritional Sciences: Christopher Vulpe;
• Information Management & Systems: Marti Hearst;
• Psychology: Jack Gallant;
• Arts and Humanities: Shawn Brixey, Digital Art Practice, Jennifer Miller, English; Nicholas Paige, French;
• Social Sciences: David Henkin, History; Laura Perez, Ethnic Studies;
• Business: Priya Raghubir, Haas School of Business.