Four faculty members and three research scientists in the department of atmospheric sciences share in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded jointly to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
Illinois faculty members Atul Jain, Michael Schlesinger, John Walsh and Don Wuebbles and research scientists Katharine Hayhoe, Ken Patten, William Chapman and Natalia Andronova (now at the University of Michigan) served as authors, reviewers or contributors to the IPCC reports. All atmospheric sciences faculty members played leadership roles in the preparation of the IPCC reports, and share in the prize with the research scientists and with their IPCC colleagues around the world.
The Nobel committee, which announced the award Oct. 12, cited the IPCC’s two decades of scientific reports, saying they have “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming.” The IPCC, a group representing more than 180 governments, operates under the auspices of the U.N. Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization. It commissions assessments of global climate change by hundreds of scientists who are experts in the field.
engineering
Gordon Baym, professor of physics, shares the 2008 Lars Onsager Prize from the American Physical Society with former UI physics faculty member Chris Pethick and Tin-Lun Ho of Ohio State University, “for fundamental applications of statistical physics to quantum fluids, including Fermi liquid theory and ground-state properties of dilute quantum gases, and for bringing a conceptual unity to these areas.” Baym has been a leader in the study of matter under extreme conditions in astrophysics and nuclear physics. He has made original, seminal contributions to the understanding of neutron stars, relativistic effects in nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, quantum fluids, and most recently, Bose-Einstein condensates.
Kenneth Schweizer, professor of materials science and engineering, of chemistry, and of chemical engineering, will receive the 2008 Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society, “for outstanding theoretical contributions to the fundamental understanding of the structure and dynamics in polymer melts, polymer blends, polymer-particle composites and glasses.” The prize, presented annually since 1960, is the highest honor in physical polymer science in the United States. Schweizer is principal investigator in the interdisciplinary Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, and the associate director of the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for the Directed Assembly of Nanostructures.
fine and applied arts
“The Three of Swords,” an image created by art and design professor Bea Nettles, is the disc icon on Bruce Springsteen’s new release, “Magic.” It is one of the original photographic tarot cards from the deck that she created during the years 1970-75. The deck was printed in a second edition in 2001. For more information about this project, visit Nettles’ Web site at www.beanettles.com/store.
liberal arts and sciences
Jay D. Bass, professor of geology and of materials science, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France.
Bass was recognized for his work on elastic properties of materials of interest “geological or technological, in extreme conditions of pressure and temperature.” His work has played a key role in determining chemical and thermal structures of Earth’s mantle, starting from seismological information.
Jane Desmond, professor of anthropology and gender and women’s studies, was elected to a two-year term as president of the International American Studies Program at a conference in Lisbon. The organization brings together scholars from around the globe who specialize in aspects of the U.S. or the hemispheric Americas.
Fritz Drasgow, professor of psychology and of labor and industrial relations, won the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology. This award is given to the individual who has made the most distinguished empirical and/or theoretical scientific contributions to the field of industrial/organizational psychology. The award recognizes a lifetime of achievement.
Michael E. Irwin, the Schlinger Research Emeritus Professor of Arthropod Biodiversity, has been selected as an honorary member of the Entomological Society of America. Honorary membership acknowledges scientists who have participated actively in society affairs and served the field of entomology with distinction. Irwin will be recognized during the society’s annual meeting in December in San Diego.
Dave Kranz, was honored at an investiture ceremony on Sept. 14 as the Phillip A. Sharp Professor. The endowed professorship in the department of biochemistry was funded by Sharp, a Nobel laureate and UI alumnus.
Stephen Shafer, assistant dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and campus pre-law adviser, was elected to a two-year term on the board of directors of the Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors at its recent conference in Chicago. It is his second time as a member of the board.
Shafer, who also is a professor in the Unit for Cinema Studies, gave the first of three invited lectures at the National Archives Great Lakes Regional Center in Chicago on Sept. 20 on Francis Ford Coppola’s feature film, “Tucker: the Man and the Dream.”
Shafer also will speak at the facility on Oct. 18 on Martin Ritt’s 1970 feature, “The Great White Hope,” and on Nov. 15 on Otto Preminger’s 1959 drama, “Anatomy of a Murder.”
McKinley Health Center
McKinley Health Center’s Carol Baxter, mental health clinical nurse specialist, and Kim Rice, sexual health educator, presented an invited lecture, “Sexual Side Effects of Mental Health Medications: A Framework for Talking With Students,” at the annual American College Health Association’s meeting in San Antonio. The talk presented theoretical and practical information for college health-care providers.