Recent Awards and HonorsFaculty in the Physical Sciences at UCLA are some of the most honored scholars in higher education. Here are highlights of recent recognition received by UCLA faculty in the Physical Sciences:Four UCLA Faculty Elected Members of the National Academy of SciencesFour UCLA faculty members were elected May 3 to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a U.S. scientist or engineer. The new National Academy of Sciences members from UCLA are: . William A.V. Clark, professor of geography. The late Professor Magnus R. Hestenes (1906-1991) of the UCLA Math Department was elected and inducted by the International Technology Institute into the USA National Level of the Hall of Fame for Engineering, Science and Technology (HOFEST). A Diploma signifying the occasion was forwarded by the ITF. Dr. Hestenes received this distinction based on a nomination received from the Czech Republic. The ITI is dedicated to the transfer and exchange of technology across academic, governmental, technical, societal and industrial lines and across international boundaries. More information about the organization and the award can be obtained on the organization's website. M. Frederick Hawthorne, a professor of chemistry at UCLA since 1969, has been awarded the 2003 King Faisal International Prize in Science for "his longstanding contributions to boron and inorganic synthetic chemistry." (December 2002) ...more... Richard B. Kaner, a UCLA chemist whose internationally renowned research in materials chemistry has led to several patents, has been awarded the 2002-04 Gold Shield Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence - an honor presented every second year in recognition of "extraordinary accomplishment" in research, teaching and university service. Kaner, who routinely involves undergraduates in his research, was praised by colleagues and students as an exceptionally dedicated teacher, whether teaching large freshman courses or advanced graduate seminars, and an innovative, highly productive scientist who has made significant, lasting contributions to UCLA and to chemistry. In his research in inorganic and materials chemistry, Kaner focuses on the design of new high-temperature materials and their synthesis by new chemical methods. He discovered a spectacular new method to make high-temperature ceramics in a few seconds that previously took days or even weeks. His research group has produced more than 100 materials using this method, and he has obtained three patents for the process, with two more pending. (June 2002) ...more... Two UCLA scientists were elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of "their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research." The new UCLA members of the National Academy of Sciences are James McWilliams, professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences; and Gerald Schubert, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences. Membership in the National Academy of Sciences is one of the highest honors that can be accorded an American scientist or engineer. McWilliams and Schubert are among 72 new members and 15 foreign associates. The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology. For the full story on the 2002 election to the National Academy of Sciences, visit http://www.nationalacademies.org/. Didier Sornette, professor in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, has received the "Risques-Les Echos prize 2002" for his work on "Predictability of catastrophic events: material rupture, earthquakes, turbulence, financial crashes and human birth." Sornette's study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, February 19, 2002 issue. The two journals "Risques" and "Les Echos" present an annual prize for the most innovative publication on the understanding of challenges associated with risk and its possible response. The journal Les Echos is the most important economic and financial journal in France and belongs to the group of The Financial Times. (May 2002) Kefeng Liu, UCLA associate professor of mathematics, has received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for 2002, an award presented for "unusually distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment." Liu's fellowship was one of five awarded to UCLA faculty in 2002. UCLA led the nation, along with Columbia and the University of Wisconsin (Madison), in receiving Guggenheim Fellowships. Next was the University of Chicago, with four fellowships. Ten universities had three fellowships. Liu, whose research focuses on differential geometry, topology and mathematical physics, will use the Guggenheim fellowship to conduct research on the mathematical and physical aspects of the mirror principle. The Guggenheim Fellowships are among the highest honors that can be awarded to scholars, artists, and writers in America. UCLA consistently ranks among the natioln's leading universities in receiving awards to faculty for research and other achievements. UCLA's Guggenheim winners were among 184 fellows chosen from more than 2,800 applicants. Awards by the Guggenheim Foundation for 2002 totaled $6.8 million. Since 1925, the foundation has granted more than $200 million in fellowships. (April 2002) Two faculty in the Physical Sciences have received the University's highest honor for classroom instruction. Steven Clarke (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Christopher Anderson (Mathematics) have won the 2002 UCLA Distinguished Teaching Awards -- two of only five awards given this year. They will also be recognized at the Night to Honor Teaching, to take place in the fall, at a date to be announced. (April 2002) John Wasson, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Institute of Gephysics and Planetary Physics. The Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry jointly bestowed on John Wasson the title of "Geochemical Fellow". (February 2002) Heinz Otto Kreiss, Department of Mathematics, has been awarded the prestigious National Academy of Science Award in Applied Mathematics and Numerical Analysis. Heinz received the award for his groundbreaking contributions to numerical analysis, fluid dynamics and meteorology. (January 2002) Ian McLean, Departent of Physics and Astronomy, has been named associate director of the UCO/Lick Observatory. As associate director, McLean has also been named to serve as director of the Infrared Imaging Dectector Laboratory at UCLA. (January 2002) Gerald Schubert, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, has been named the 2002 Harry H. Hess Medalist of the American Geophysical Society. Schubert received the honor for "his outstanding achievements in the research of the constitution and evolution of earth and its sister planets. In 2001, Schubert was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (January 2002) Bjorn Stevens, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, has been awarded the Clarence Leroy Meisenger Award by the American Meteorological Society for his pioneering advances in understanding and modeling of cloud-topped boundary layers. (January 2002) Terrence Tao, Department of Mathematics, has received the Bocher Memorial Prize for 2002. Tao received the Prize for "his recent breakthrough on the problem of critical regularity in Sobolev spaces of the wave maps equations, his collaborative papers on global regularity in optimal Sobolev spaces for KdV, and his contributions to Strichartz and bilinear estimates." (January 2002) Fred Hawthorne, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry has been selected as the 2001 Basolo Lecturer and Medalist by the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University and the Chicago Section of American Chemical Society. (November 2001) Yung-Ya Lin, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, received a Research Innovation Award from the Research Corporation. The award will help support the development of his idea to exploit dynamical chaos for the amplification of weak NMR signals. (November 2001) Chuck Knobler, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, has been named as the 2002 winner of the American Chemical Society Award in Colloid or Surface Chemistry. (August 2001) Jim Gimzewski, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in recognition of his achievements of exceptional merit and distinction in engineering.(July 2001) Yung-Ya Lin, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry received a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award for 2001. (July 2001) |