|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
Andrews and Walker Elected to National Academy of Sciences
George E. Andrews, Evan Pugh professor of mathematics, and Alan Walker, Evan Pugh professor of anthropology and biology, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Andrews’ research centers on number theory, partitions, and related areas of mathematics. A partition of a whole number is a representation of that number as a sum of positive whole numbers. For example, the seven partitions of the number 5 are 5 itself; 4+1; 3+2; 3+1+1; 2+2+1; 2+1+1+1; and 1+1+1+1+1. He also has applied number theory, particularly partition theory, to such diverse areas as computer programs for algebra and the behavior of liquid helium on a surface. In 1976, Andrews discovered the “Lost Notebook” of Srinivasa Ramanujan among papers from the estate of G.N. Watson in the Trinity College Library, Cambridge University, England. Ramanujan was a self-taught Indian mathematician who had revolutionized the theory of numbers and the study of partitions in the early 20th century. Andrews is one of the foremost authorities on Ramanujan’s work. Walker is a world-reknowned expert on the evolution of primates and humans. He pioneered the study of living primates as a basis for the analysis of fossils and was one of the first to use scanning electron microscope studies of enamel microwear on teeth to understand the diets of extinct mammals. In 1994, Walker and his collaborator, Meave Leakey, discovered the skeletal remains of a previously unknown species in the human lineage, which they named Australopithecus anamensis. Walker is the author of Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton, Structure and Function of the Human Skeleton, and Wisdom of the Bones. The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science. It was established in 1863 by a Congressional act of incorporation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, which calls on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology. Election to the academy is one of the highest honors accorded to U.S. scientists or engineers by their peers. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Nei was chosen to receive the award in recognition of his research achievements, which are the foundation of the theoretical framework of the field of molecular evolutionary biology. According to a statement by the society, Nei has contributed enormously to the development not only of his own field, but to every branch of biology that is concerned with diversity and evolution. “By developing various statistical methods and applying them to molecular data, he pioneered new ways of studying the genetic diversity of populations, evolutionary relationships among organisms, the times of species divergence from common ancestors, the location of gene regions in which natural selection is operating, and related areas. The methods he introduced have made it possible to obtain quantitative estimates of various parameters of evolutionary importance that could not have been measured experimentally. Through these achievements, Dr. Nei has not only made the latest findings at the molecular level available to evolutionary biologists, but has contributed greatly to the birth of molecular evolutionary biology and its establishment as a positive science in which hypotheses can be verified quantitatively, rather than being discussed solely on a conceptual level.” Among his many achievements, Nei has constructed a mathematical theory of the relationships between species using molecular data obtained from their genes. With one of his graduate students, he developed the neighbor-joining method of inferring these relationships, known as molecular phylogenies. This method is widely used for constructing phylogenetic trees. “It was a particularly charming moment when Emperor Akihito of Japan, who has studied the taxonomy and evolution of gobioid fishes, mentioned in his congratulatory address during the award ceremony that he has used the neighbor-joining method to construct phylogenetic trees during his studies of these fishes,” Nei says. In a career spanning more than forty years, Nei has worked with many collaborators in his development of various statistical methods to determine the molecular mechanisms of biological diversity and of evolution. He also has expanded this underlying theory and has applied his methods to the analysis of data. For example, in his research on mathematical modeling of DNA evolution, Nei devised several statistical methods—now used by a large number of investigators—for estimating the number of changes, or substitutions, that are likely to occur in the nucleotide building blocks of the DNA molecule during its evolution. Nei then applied these methods in his studies of the genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which is involved in immune responses such as the rejection of transplanted organs. Among his discoveries concerning the major histocompatibility complex is that the puzzling diversity of its genes in human populations is due to a special pattern of DNA evolution that occurs when genes protect their hosts from invaders such as viruses and bacteria. One of the best-known statistical methods developed by Nei, which was published in 1972 but still is in frequent use by scientists worldwide, defines the degree of genetic difference between populations and estimates this genetic distance from molecular data gleaned from DNA and protein molecules. Known as Nei’s genetic distance, this measure makes it possible to estimate from the molecular data the origins of populations and the times of their divergence from common ancestors. Nei applied this technique to human populations and obtained the first evidence pointing to the African origins of modern humans. This paper on genetic distance has been listed among the 1000 most-cited papers in all scientific fields. Nei also is the author of many influential papers and four books, has served on numerous editorial and review boards in the United States and in Japan, and was the cofounder and coeditor of Molecular Biology and Evolution, the leading journal in the field. He was elected an honorary member of the Genetics Society of Japan in 1989, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1993, an honorary member of the Japan Society of Human Genetics in 1996, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1997, an honorary member of the Japan Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics in 2000, and an honorary member of the Japan Society of Animal Genetics and Breeding in 2001. Among his numerous honors and awards Nei has received the Japan Society of Human Genetics Award in 1977, the Kihara Prize of the Genetics Society of Japan in 1990, a certificate of award from the Institute for Scientific Information as a “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2000, and an honorary doctoral degree from Miyazaki University in Japan in 2002. In addition, the Society for Molecular Biology and Evo-lution established the annual Masatoshi Nei Annual Lecture in his honor in 2000. Nei was named Evan Pugh Professor of Biology in 1994. He joined the Penn State faculty in 1990 as distinguished professor of biology and founding director of the Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Benkovic’s accomplishments are “highly original, of unusual breadth, and have had a profound impact on the way we think about how proteins function as catalysts,” according to a statement released by the society. “His papers are fine examples of intellectual creativity, taut reasoning, and insightful, experimental design. What is most impressive is the breadth of techniques and freshness of his ideas—a remarkable sense of what questions to ask—that continually place his work at the forefront of chemistry being done at the chemistry/ biology interface.” In nominating Benkovic for the Award, Gordon Hammes, Duke
University Distinguished Service Professor of Biochemistry, wrote:
“Dr. Benkovic is at the top of the list of the leading mechanistic
enzymologists in the world. What sets his work apart from others is his
versatility and his mastery of the many different fields to which he has
made important contributions, including organic chemistry, physical chemistry,
biochemistry, and molecular biology. For example, his studies of enzyme
mechanisms utilize state-of-the-art physical-organic-chemistry methods,
synthetic techniques, modern kinetic techniques, and advanced physical-chemistry
techniques such as fluorescence-resonance energy transfer. With these
techniques, he has studied many different enzyme systems that are important
in human biology, including research that has been of fundamental importance
in the design of cancer drugs. For example, as a result of his recent
work on DNA polymerase, especially the T4 complex, he has managed to delineate
clearly the sequence of molecular events that occur during its replication
and he is now approaching a molecular understanding of how its Benkovic joined the Penn State faculty as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1965 and was promoted to associate professor in 1967 then to professor in 1970. The University honored him with the title of Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry in 1977, holder of the University Chair in Biological Sciences in 1984, and holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Chemistry in 1986. Benkovic is the author or coauthor of more than 455 scientific papers. He is a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of the journal, Science, and is a member of editorial or advisory boards of nine additional scientific journals, including Accounts of Chemical Research, Biochemistry, Biocatalysis and Biotransformation, Bioorganic Chemistry, BMB Biochemistry, ChemBioChem, Chemistry and Biology, Current Drugs, and Organic Letters. He is the co-author, with Thomas C. Bruice, of the classic two-volume set of texts titled Bioorganic Mechanisms. He serves as a member of the external advisory group of the Geisinger Hospital and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Benkovic is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Federation of American Biologists, Sigma Xi, and the Chemical Society. His previous awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship from 1968 to 1974, the National Institutes of Health Career Development Award from 1969 to 1974, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976, the National Institutes of Health Merit Award in 1988, and the Alfred Bader Award of the American Chemical Society in 1994, an honorary doctorate of science degree from Lehigh University in 1995, the Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists in 1998, and the Christian B. Anfinsen Award in 2000. Benkovic was named a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1984, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1985, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1987, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995, and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2002. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Bernheim’s contributions to the National Academies include having served as chairman for the Chemical Sciences for the National Research Council Associateships Program, which identifies postdoctoral scientists and engineers of unusual promise and ability and provides them with opportunities for research at various federal laboratories. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Associate and Fellowship Programs. “My work with the Associateships Program is particularly satisfying,” says Bernheim, “because of its positive impact on the initial stages of the careers of many young scientists.” Bernheim has done extensive research in molecular spectroscopy, including nuclear and electron-spin magnetic resonance, optical pumping, and laser spectroscopy. He has been recognized for his work using laser spectroscopy to solve fundamental questions concerning molecular structure and the dynamics of small molecules. Combining physical observations with theoretical descriptions of the observed phenomena, his research has as its goal a fundamental understanding of the electronic-state structure of molecules and molecular interactions. Bernheim has been elected a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. In 1988, he was a Fulbright Professor in the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1989 he received the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, which he used to do research at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, and at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. Bernheim joined the Penn State chemistry faculty in 1961.
Four Penn State physicists—Lee Samuel Finn, professor of physics and astronomy and astrophysics; Jorge Pullin, adjunct professor of physics; Paul Weiss, professor of chemistry and physics; and Tom Winter, professor of physics at Penn State Wilkes-Barre—have been elected as Fellows of the American Physical Society (APS). The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members who have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication, have made significant and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology, or have made significant contributions to the teaching of physics, or service and participation in the activities of the society. Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the membership of the Society are recognized by their peers for election to the status of Fellow in the American Physical Society.
Finn joined the Penn State faculty in 1998 as an associate professor of physics and astronomy and astrophysics and was promoted to professor in 2002. In 2001, he was appointed director of the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics at Penn State.
Pullin joined the Penn State faculty in 1993 as an assistant professor. He was named associate professor in 1997 and professor in 2000. In 2002, he joined the faculty of Louisiana State University, retaining his association with Penn State as an adjunct faculty member.
Weiss joined the Penn State faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor of chemistry. He was named associate professor of chemistry in 1995, professor of chemistry in 2001, and professor of physics in 2002. He was appointed as director of Penn State’s Center for Molecular Nanofabrication and Devices in 2001. Weiss is serving as a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry from 2000 to 2005. His academic honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997, the American Chemical Society Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry in 1996, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1995, and the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1991.
Winter joined the faculty at the Wilkes-Barre campus in 1976 as an assistant professor. He earned the rank of associate professor in 1981 and became a full professor in 1987. He served as acting campus executive officer for the Wilkes-Barre campus from 1994 to 1997, and he founded and continues to direct the highly successful campus recycling program. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Duties of the vice-chair elect involve a significant service commitment to the division, including initial organization of symposia for the two national meetings over which she will preside in the spring and fall 2005. “The American Chemical Society’s national meetings host between 15 and 20 thousand attendees each fall and spring,” said Garrison. “These meetings provide a fantastic venue for promoting forefront physical chemistry.” As a physical chemist, Garrison has pioneered the use of computer modeling to simulate and understand chemical reactions on material surfaces. She uses computer models to study the effects of fast energy deposition and the resulting chemical reactions at solid surfaces. Her studies of laser ablation are applicable to the optimization of lasers for surgery, the mass spectrometry of biological molecules, and the process of thin-film deposition. Her models of energetic-particle bombardment of solids have built a theoretical understanding of the complex events that lead to the ejection of molecules from surfaces. This understanding has contributed to advances in the interpretation of mass-spectrometry data for organic compounds and biological molecules and to the development of better techniques for doping and depth profiling of semiconductors. Garrison joined the Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor in 1979, was promoted to professor in 1986, and served as head of the department from 1989 to 1994. She was named Shapiro Professor of Chemistry in 2002. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Abel’s CAREER award will help to support an area of his research in which he uses supercomputers to recreate all the events in the early universe that lead to the formation of the first luminous objects. He previously found that the first stars were massive and that they formed in isolation. He now will use his CAREER award to study the deaths of these first stars and to investigate where stars formed next in the universe. “This award is a great honor and will allow us to go into a very new line of research. We hope to gain insights into the processes that lead to the formation of stars similar to our Sun as early as a few hundred million years after the Big Bang,” Abel says. “Supercomputers are slowly getting powerful enough to address these issues from first principles, including such intriguing questions as when and where the first planets formed in the universe.” Along with the research itself, Abel’s plans include two separate education and outreach efforts. One involves the continuing development of a graduate course on astrophysical hydrodynamics that involves immersive, or virtual-reality, technologies to explain the complex behavior of astrophysical fluids. Abel also plans to use the virtual-reality equipment for planetarium-like shows. “In a regular planetarium, a visitor experiences the night sky as a projection on the ceiling, but in our lab the visitor will become part of the universe and will fly from galaxy to galaxy at speeds much greater than the speed of light, building an intuitive understanding of our place in the universe,” Abel explains. Abel joined the Penn State faculty in 2002. His research has been featured on the Discovery channel and as the cover stories in magazines such as Discover and National Geographic. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Andrews joined the mathematics faculty at Penn State in 1964, achieving the rank of full professor in 1970. In 1976, he discovered the lost notebook of Ramanujan, the Indian mathematical genius, in the Trinity College library in Cambridge, England—an important discovery that excited the interest of the entire international mathematical community. This discovery allowed a greater understanding of several branches of number theory and ultimately led to important applications in statistical mechanics. In 1981, Penn State honored Andrews with the title of Evan Pugh Professor, the highest honor that Penn State bestows on its faculty members. Andrews has published extensively on the theory of partitions and related areas of mathematics. He has been a visiting faculty member at colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Africa, South America, Europe, and Australia, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow, the Principal Lecturer at a Conference Board for the Mathematical Sciences meeting, and a Hedrick Lecturer for the Mathematical Association of America. In 1993, he received the Mathematical Association of America Regional Distinguished Teaching Award and was named Pi Mu Epsilon J.S. Frame Lecturer. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997, received an honorary doctorate in physics from the University of Parma in Italy in 1998, and received the Centennial Award from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Cameron’s research focuses on positive-strand RNA viruses, which cause diseases ranging from the common cold to chronic hepatitis. While the infection by some of those viruses can be stopped by the immune system alone or with the help of vaccinations, other similar viruses change so quickly that neither approach works. “Coxsackievirus is unique, in that infection is normally controlled by the immune system,” said Cameron. “However, in some individuals, especially in those suffering from immune suppression or deficiency, the virus can establish a chronic infection. Once this happens in the heart, attempts of the immune system to clear the virus actually destroy the heart. Our studies of the related poliovirus permitted us to discover new ways to treat this class of viruses. This study will actually take us one step closer to demonstrating the universality of the approach and at the same time pave the way for treating coxsackievirus infection.” Cameron joined the Penn State faculty in 1997 and was named the Louis Martarano Career Development Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2002. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Jayanth Banavar and Yakov Pesin, have been named Distinguished Professors of Physics and Mathematics, respectively. The honor, which recognizes exceptional teaching, research, creativity, and service to the University community, is designated by the Office of the President of Penn State based on the recommendations of colleagues and the Dean.
Banavar is a condensed-matter theorist who has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles. The focus of his research is application of statistical-physics techniques on interdisciplinary problems including such diverse topics as protein folding, fluids in confined geometries, ecology, river-network formation, and spin glasses. He joined the Penn State faculty in 1988 and became department head in 1998. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Association for the Advancement of Science.
Pesin develops mathematical tools for mapping complicated behavior and studies statistical properties of dynamical systems, an area of mathematics that is useful in studying systems exhibiting chaotic-like behavior in applied sciences. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in dynamical systems and a leading authority on the dimension theory of dynamical systems and smooth-ergodic theory. His results on the ergodic theory of dynamical systems provide a foundation for numerous applications throughout mathematics and in other sciences including biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Pesin, who joined the Penn State faculty in 1990, is an executive editor of the journal Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, which is the leading journal in the field. He has authored or co-authored four books and more than sixty research papers on these subjects. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Richard Robinett was selected to receive an Excellence in Advising Award.
Assistant department head and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics, Robinett came to Penn State in 1986 as an assistant professor. He was named associate professor in 1990 and professor in 2000. In his current position, he advises more than three-quarters of the University’s physics majors, including almost all incoming prospective physics majors and pre-majors. As for an advising philosophy, Robinett said he maintains an open-door policy but that he also utilizes e-mail in order to provide his advisees with quick responses to their questions. Still, he says face-to-face meetings are best because often important questions or problems, which may be unrelated to the original purpose of the meeting, can arise and be examined. His students value his patience, involvement, and availability, and they appreciate his willingness to guide them through their time at the University and into the workplace. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Allara is a materials chemist with a longstanding interest in understanding chemical interactions and processes that occur at surfaces and at the interfaces between materials. His research includes development of advanced tools for characterizing surfaces, design and building of new types of materials based on organized-surface molecular assemblies, and the applications of these structures to new technologies such as molecular electronics. Also receiving the award is Ralph G. Nuzzo of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Allara and Nuzzo collaborated on research starting in the 1980s that led to their first discovery that a broad class of organic molecules containing sulfur can spontaneously assemble to form highly organized layers, one-molecule thick, on gold surfaces, thereby imparting important new characteristics to the gold surface. Their ensuing work further showed that other types of molecules also can form modified surfaces on a variety of other materials and opened the door for a highly general approach of modifying and studying surfaces. The Adamson Award cites their achievements as a “seminal work” that has led to entirely new areas of surface chemistry with important extensions into physics, biology, and materials, and with numerous applications ranging from biosensors to molecular electronics. Allara, who joined the Penn State faculty in 1987, was elected a Fellow of the in 1997 and received the Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff award in 1984 for career achievements at Bell Laboratories. He has lectured widely and has published more than 150 research papers. He has served on the editorial boards of scientific journals, chaired numerous symposia and conferences, and served on advisory panels for a number of granting agencies. He has been affiliated with several professional societies, including the American Vacuum Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, and the Materials Research Society. In 1999, the American Chemical Society presented Allara with its Award in Spectrochemical Analysis for his achievements in surface spectroscopy. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Prior to the start of the 22nd Annual Southeast-Atlantic Regional Conference on Differential Equations, conference attendees gathered to celebrate the career of Allan M. Krall, professor emeritus of mathematics. Krall was a member of the faculty in the Department of Mathematics from 1963 until his retirement in 1998. His research has focused on Sobolev Space boundary-value problems and their applications to orthogonal polynomials, and he has published 130 research papers and three books on these topics. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Ayusman Sen, professor of chemistry, and Andrew G. Stephenson, professor of biology, have been awarded Faculty Scholar Medals. Established in 1980, the award recognizes scholarly or creative excellence represented by a single contribution or a series of contributions around a coherent theme.
He joined the University in 1979 and was named professor in 1989.
Joining the University in 1978, he was named professor in 1986. He received the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992, Faculty Associates Award for Outstanding Involvement in Undergraduate Research in 1997 and was named Most Highly Cited Researcher (Ecology) by Current Contents ISI in 2002. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Two Penn State astronomers have been recognized for their scientific impact over the past two decades by ISI, an organization that monitors scientific citations worldwide. Professors Eric Feigelson and Donald Schneider, of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, are included in ISI’s list of 249 “highly cited” researchers from 14 nations who were recognized for their contributions to space science based on the number of times their research has been cited in papers published between 1981 and 1999. “This recognition reflects the increasingly important role Penn State is playing in astronomy,” said Peter Mészáros, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics. “We expect our impact to continue to rise in the future as our young faculty become more visible and as we make more discoveries with facilities such as the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and NASA’s Swift satellite, which is scheduled to be launched in 2004 and for which Penn State will serve as the scientific control center.”
Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Fedoroff earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry, summa cum laude, at Syracuse University in 1966, and has since become one of the nation’s most prominent researchers in the life sciences and biotechnology. Throughout her career, she has distinguished herself as a pioneer in the application of molecular techniques to plants. In earlier work, her laboratory cloned and analyzed the molecular biology of mobile genetic elements, also known as transposons, in the maize plant. Among her accomplishments, she isolated and characterized the first complete maize transposable genetic element—research that provided the molecular basis for understanding unusual phenomena first described in maize by Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock in the 1940s. Fedoroff later identified and studied the molecular mechanism of regulation of the maize suppressor-mutator element and also identified a unique regulatory protein encoded by this element. Today, her laboratory studies genes that contribute to a plant’s ability to fight off disease, environmental pollutants, and other environmental stresses. The overall goal of her research is to identify important stress-response genes that geneticists can use to strengthen the ability of plants to withstand environmental assaults. Fedoroff has received numerous honors and awards, including the University of Chicago’s Howard Taylor Ricketts Award in 1990; the New York Academy of Sciences Outstanding Contemporary Women Scientist Award in 1992; and the Sigma Xi McGovern Science and Society Medal in 1997. In 2001, President Clinton appointed Fedoroff to the National Science Board, a 24-person board that oversees the activities of the National Science Foundation. Members are selected on the basis of their eminence in science, engineering, education, or research management. They are appointed by the president for a six-year term and confirmed by the United States Senate. In 2002, she was named an Evan Pugh Professor, the highest distinction that Penn State bestows upon a faculty member. In July 2002, Fedoroff stepped down from positions as founding director of the Penn State Life Sciences Consortium and as director of the Penn State Biotechnology Institute in order to devote more of her energies to her research activities. Fedoroff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences, and the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honorary societies. She chairs the Publications Committee of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, as well as the boards of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Company. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
Rao is internationally acknowledged as one of the pioneers who laid the foundation of modern statistics, as well as one of the world’s top five statisticians with multifaceted distinctions as a mathematician, researcher, scientist, and teacher. His pioneering contributions to mathematics and statistical theory and applications have become part of graduate and postgraduate courses in statistics, econometrics, electrical engineering, and many other disciplines at most universities throughout the world. His research, scholarship, and pro-fessional services have had a profound influence on the theory and application of statistics in such diverse fields as anthro-pology, geology, biology, psychology, social sciences, and national planning. Rao’s research in multivariate analysis, for example, has been used to improve economic planning, weather prediction, medical diagnosis, tracking the movements of spy planes, and monitoring the course of spacecrafts. Technical terms bearing his name appear in all standard textbooks on statistics, including such terms as the Cramer-Rao Inequality, Rao-Blackwellization, Rao’s Score Test, Fisher-Rao Theorem, and Rao Distance. A book he wrote in 1965, Linear Statistical Inference and Its Applications, is still one of the most-often-cited books in science. Among his numerous previous awards, Rao was honored by President George W. Bush in 2002 with the National Medal of Science, the highest award given to an American scientist for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research, for his “pioneering contributions to the foundations of statistical theory and multivariate statistical methodology and their applications, enriching the physical, biological, mathematical, economic, and engineering sciences.” In addition, Rao is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States, a Fellow of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom, and a member of the Indian National Science Academy, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and the Third World Academy of Sciences. He has been honored by the Government of India with the Padma Vibhushan award—the country’s second-highest civilian honor—for outstanding contributions to science, engineering, and statistics; with selection as the namesake for a National Award to be presented to the country’s outstanding young statisticians; and with the highest honor bestowed by the University of Visva-Bharati, the Desikottama award in recognition of his “enormous contributions in the field of statistics and its applications.” In 1982 Rao established the Center for Multivariate Analysis at the University
of Pittsburgh, where he continues as adjunct professor. He joined
the Penn State He has authored or co-authored 14 books and more than 300 research papers published in scientific journals. He has supervised the doctoral research of approximately fifty students, most of whom now are employed in universities and other research organizations worldwide, many of whom have become research leaders in their areas of specialization. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
The Statistics 200 course redesign was intended to make the material more relevant to students by shifting the role of the instructor from strictly a lecturer to facilitator of self-directed learning. The redesigned course stresses hands-on practice activities using technology. Because students are now grouped in labs of about sixty students, rather than lecture sections of about thirty students, fewer sections are needed, reducing the number of teaching assistants required and the administrative overhead costs. Assessments of student readiness help instructors focus instruction on gaps in knowledge. These course improvements reduce the cost per student by approximately thirty percent. In a course with an enrollment of over 2,800, this adds up to significant savings. The course redesign project began with a Pew Grant in Course Redesign given to the Statistics Department. The Pew program encourages universities to redesign instructional approaches using technology to achieve cost savings as well as quality enhancements, particularly in large-enrollment, introductory courses. With the help of the grant money, the Schreyer Institute assisted the Statistics Department in redesigning the curriculum. Once the curricular redesign was complete, ETS created a small-scale Web-based course management system. “This allows an instructor to post a syllabus in one place for all sections of a course. When a student logs in, he or she automatically enters the right section,” explains Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer. There, the student finds pre-assessments, reading assignments, and exercises, listed by date. Harkness says of the course redesign, “It’s a fantastic success.” He explains that the Statistics Department is now using the same curricular model in biostatistics and engineering statistics. Students enrolled in courses using the new model have performed progressively better on each quiz, he says. On the final exam, there is a “big difference” compared to scores from students enrolled in traditional lecture classes. He says he prefers the new curriculum emphasizing self-directed learning and would not go back to the old model of three lectures a week. Although the hands-on approach may be more work for the students, he says, “They get so much more out of it.”
The Pennsylvania State University Gamma Chapter of the National Cooperative Education Honor Society, Kappa Theta Epsilon (KQE), was named “Chapter of the Year” out of 16 university chapters at the KQE National Convention. “I am proud to be part of an organization of students who have successfully juggled a rigorous academic program in science and engineering with co-op work assignments and extracurricular activities,” said Cindye Rudy, KQE Science Cooperative Education Advisor. Kappa Theta Epsilon was founded in 1957 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to promote cooperative education in all disciplines by establishing and maintaining contacts between students, faculty, industry, and other organizations. The Eberly College of Science Cooperative Education Program places approximately 300 students at more than 150 companies each year. Approximately 25 Penn State students are inducted into the Gamma Chapter annually. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
The Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of its establishment with a five-day international conference that brought to the University Park campus scientists from twenty countries on five continents. Founded in 1993, the institute was established to enhance research in gravitational physics and related areas, and to strengthen bonds between academic programs in astronomy and astrophysics, mathematics, and physics. The institute has made many contributions to the field of gravitational physics, including the development of a quantum theory of geometry and its application to unravel the nature of the Big Bang, and innovative analyses that have shed new light on the properties of black holes. In 2001 the National Science Foundation created a Physics Frontiers Center for Gravitational Wave Physics at Penn State for research at the interface of general relativity, gravitational waves, astrophysics, and detector design. Although separate from the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry for administrative purposes, the two groups, collectively known as the Gravity Center, are completely intertwined in their intellectual interactions. From a scientific viewpoint, the expanded group has simply broadened its research focus. In the ten years since its inception, the number of researchers at the Gravity Center has grown from seventeen to fifty four. It also includes sixteen postdoctoral researchers, fifteen graduate students, and eight undergraduate students. In addition to these Penn State researchers, there are currently five researchers from the United States, India, Greece, and the United Kingdom who are spending all or part of their sabbaticals doing research at the center. The institute plans to add new interdisciplinary initiatives and to continue its vigorous research programs in all five areas of current strength—quantum gravity; mathematical general relativity; numerical relativity; gravitational wave phenomenology; and data analysis for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a facility dedicated to the detection of cosmic gravitational waves and the harnessing of these waves for scientific research. Back to Science Journal Summer 2004 Index
|
||||||
|
Penn State Home Page | Eberly College of Science | Find a Person | Locate a Building | Search | Site Index Students
| Alumni
| Visitors
| Researchers
| Faculty and
Staff | Postdoctoral
Fellows | Corporate
Interests |
||||||
| This
page is maintained by Barbara K. Kennedy:
science@psu.edu, (814) 863-4682; Leta A. Krumrine:
lak15@psu.edu, (814) 865-1390; and Kristen
Devlin: krd111@psu.edu, (814) 863-8453
-- FAX (814) 863-2246 Eberly College of Science, Office of Public Information, 427 Thomas Building, University Park, PA 16802-2112 This page was last updated on 21June 2004 If you would like
to communicate with the keepers of the Eberly College of Science Web server,
send electronic mail to: science-web@thunder.science.psu.edu |
Masatoshi
Nei, Evan Pugh Professor of 
Stephen
J. Benkovic, Evan Pugh Professor and Eberly Family Chair in 
Robert
Bernheim, professor emeritus of 
Lee
Samuel Finn was cited by the society for his “innovative
contributions to the computational infrastructure for gravitational-wave
detection, detector modeling, data analysis, and source simulations.”
Finn, the director of the 
Jorge
Pullin was cited by the APS for his “outstanding contributions
to black-hole physics and quantum gravity.” Pullin’s research
focuses on both classical and quantum-mechanical aspects of gravitational
physics. He has developed equations to compute the gravitational waveforms
and radiated energies generated by the collision of two black holes. These
calculations are of great interest in astrophysics because they provide
a theoretical basis for interpretation of the data from black hole collisions
expected to be detected by LIGO.
Paul
Weiss was cited for his “fundamental contributions to nanoscale
science and technology by developing and applying tools to control and
to measure functional properties and interactions of materials at the
atomic scale.” His research includes studies of catalysis, molecular
electronics, molecular motors, self-assembly, nanofabrication, and control
of molecules on surfaces and in lipid bilayers. Weiss has developed a
number of techniques for measuring chemical, physical, and electronic
properties at the atomic scale and for manipulating atoms in thin layers.
The techniques he developed in research have applications in nanoscale
technology for electronics, storage, and motors and in the understanding
and control of biological membranes, such as cell walls. 
Thomas
G. Winter was cited “for advancing the understanding of
the physics of heavy-particle collisions via highly accurate couple-state
calculation based on novel physical insight.” His research in theoretical
atomic physics investigates collisions between ions and atoms. Using quantum
mechanics, he calculates the probabilities that the electron in the target
atom will be excited, ionized, or captured. These complex calculations,
requiring thousands of lines of computer code, predict the interactions
based on factoring the speed and direction of the collision.
Barbara
Garrison, Shapiro Professor of 
Tom
Abel, assistant professor of 
Craig
E. Cameron, the Louis Martarano Associate Professor of 
Jayanth
Banavar is professor and head of the Department of Physics. “Under
Jayanth’s leadership, the physics department at 
Yakov
Pesin, professor of mathematics, has for many years produced
incredibly deep mathematical research results, according to Gary Mullen,
professor of the mathematics. “His reputation is indeed an international
one, so I am absolutely delighted that the University also has recognized
the importance of his work.”
The
award, established by the 
David
L. Allara, professor of 
Ayusman
Sen received the Faculty Scholar Medal for Physical Sciences
for his use of novel organometallic catalytic processes in inexpensive
and efficient methods to produce chemicals and polymers of potential use
in such diverse areas as health care and photolithography. He also has
discovered catalytic processes to cleanse water of toxic organic chemicals
and to recycle plastics into useful compounds. He addresses tough, unsolved
problems of intense current interest and enormous technical importance.
His work has resulted in 18 patents and more than 170 publications. 
Andrew
Stephenson received the Faculty Scholar Medal for Life and Health
Sciences for his seminal and groundbreaking discoveries in the evolutionary
biology of plants. His contributions to the understanding of Darwin’s
theories on sexual selection and the evolution of mating systems are internationally
recognized. His work also affects broad areas of plant biology, including
plant physiology and breeding. He has demonstrated that, regardless of
the haphazard nature of pollen deposition, plants can exercise a great
deal of control over which of the deposited pollen grains actually fertilize
the ovules, which of the immature seeds mature and which abort during
development and which immature fruits mature and which are aborted. 
Feigelson,
who joined the Penn State faculty in 1982, is widely recognized as one
of the world’s experts on the application of advanced statistical
methods to astronomical data sets, and also has made a number of fundamental
contributions in the field of stellar formation. He is a member of the
team led by Gordon Garmire, Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
that developed the primary instrument for NASA’s 
Schneider,
who came to Penn State in 1994, focuses his research primarily on observational
cosmology. He is the chairman of quasar science for the 
Nina
V. Fedoroff, Evan Pugh Professor of 
Calyampudi
R. Rao, Emeritus Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in 
At
a recent