Briefs

(The Scientist, Vol:5, #2, pg. 20, January 21, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- Eli Lilly Helps Women Chemists Travel Women undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral chemists who wish to present their research results at meetings can apply for travel grants provided by Eli Lilly & co. and administered by the American Chemical Society's Women Chemists Committee. Money is intended for travel to, registration at, and accommodations for scientific meetings within the continental

Joseph Prospero has been named director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (CIMAS) at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Prospero, an atmospheric chemist who formerly was chairman of Rosenstiel's Division of Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry, is a specialist in the global-scale properties of aerosols. CIMAS, a joint program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Miami, brings together

Ronald C. Davidson, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1978, has been named director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Funded by the United States Department of Energy, PPPL operates on an annual budget of nearly $100 million. Research at the laboratory focuses on the creation of energy from the fusion of hydrogen nuclei confined by magnetic fields. Davidson's new position began on January 1. Davidson joined the physics faculty of MIT in 1978,

Ford Foundation Supports Postdocs Each year the Ford Foundation supports 25 young minority Ph.D. scholars as part of its Postdoctoral Fellowships for Minorities program. Minority investigators who have received their doctorates in the past seven years and who show great promise as academics can apply for nine- or 12-month fellowships. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers, social scientists, and humanists are eligible. Applicants must belong to one of the following ethnic groups: Native Americ

Westinghouse Searches For Science Talent The Westinghouse Science Talent Search is boosting its awards total this year from $140,000 to $205,000. High school seniors can apply for these scholarships to fund individual research projects in science, mathematics, and engineering at the college or university of their choice. Forty finalists will receive scholarships ranging from $1,000 (30 recipients) to $40,000 (one recipient). Westinghouse will also pick up the tab for a five-day trip to Washing

Funds for five first-time MERCK-AFCR Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships will be available July 1, 1991, for U.S. and Canadian M.D.-Ph.D. scientists. The program is jointly sponsored by the Rahway, N.J.-based Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories and the American Federation for Clinical Research Foundation (AFCR). Candidates for these new fellowships must have already been accepted by an appropriate institution for a postdoctoral training program. Fellowship funds are slated for research wo

Theodore Friedmann, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has been appointed to the Muriel Jeannette Whitehill Chair for Biomedical Ethics at the school. Friedmann, who has been at UC-San Diego since 1969, has focused his research efforts on the genetic mechanisms underlying disease and the development of methods to correct genetic defects. In a benchmark 1972 essay in Science (175:949-55), Friedmann introduced the phrase "gene therapy" to descr

NIH Reviews Electronic Mailing Of Guide Electronic mailings will one day replace the distribution of the printed weekly Guide for Grants and Contracts. Those concerned about how this change will come about and how it will affect their institutions are invited to participate in a one-day workshop September 7 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The meeting will run from 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., and will include formal presentations and on-line and simulated demonstrations. Partic

Culpeper Funds Medical Scholars The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation Scholarships in Medical Science provide financial support for the career development of young academic physicians. Any accredited U.S. medical school can apply for up to three years of funding, in the name of a desired candidate, for awards of up to $100,000 per year. Three awards are scheduled for funding this year. Parameters for research topics are wide; anything that has relevance to human health is acceptable. However, the

Sununu's Clout Endows Research Fellow Last year, wealthy Lebanese- and Syrian-Americans opened their wallets at a dinner held by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., to honor White House Chief of Staff John Sununu. The result was a research fellowship. And this month the recipient of their largess, Srinivas Chunduru, a newly minted chemistry Ph.D. from the University of Akron, has begun working in the hospital's pharmacology department. The $22,000 John Sununu Endowed Fellow

Watching Their Wallets The rankings of 1989's top 100 spenders on industrial R&D suggests that the R&D slowdown in the U.S. has begun to reach the labs of industry leaders. Technical Insights, Inc., the Englewood, N.J., firm that publishes Inside R&D, a weekly newsletter, finds in its latest annual survey that last year the top 100, headed by General Motors, increased research spending by 8.7 percent, after posting spending gains of 10.7 percent the previous year. Charles Joslin, editor ofInsid

Speakers' Fund For Women Geoscientists The Association for Women Geoscientists has received a $9,000 grant for three years from Phillips Petroleum to fund travel costs of members serving as speakers. The AWG Speakers Bureau maintains a list of 120 nationally recognized women geoscientists who are available for speaking engagements. Nonprofit, nongovernment organizations needing speakers to discuss geoscience topics can apply. Up to $300 in direct travel costs is available. The deadline for appl

Harry B. Gray, Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, has been named winner of the 1991 Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor. Gray's research has focused on inorganic photochemistry and artificial photosynthetic systems. In addition, he has conducted research on electronic structures of iron- and copper-containing proteins, and on chemical reactions that involve transfers of electrons between metal centers in proteins. In Ma

Third Time's A Charm On Misconduct The scientific community learns from its mistakes in investigating allegations of misconduct - but not very quickly, says former NIH director James Wyngaarden. Wyngaarden, speaking last month at a luncheon sponsored by a National Academy of Sciences panel examining responsible conduct in research, says that he's developed a rule of thumb that predicts how institutions are likely to handle scientific misconduct by their faculty. "They blow it the first time," h

U.S., USSR to Share Plant Collections U.S. and Soviet agriculture officials plan to link the world's two largest collections of plant germplasm (genetic material contained in seeds and cuttings) via a computerized database accessible to both nations. The U.S. Agricultural Research Service's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) has for the past six years allowed North American scientists to access the U.S. collection via personal computer. This fall two ARS scientists will travel to L

Awards Honor Epilepsy Research Now in its second year, the American Epilepsy Society Awards Program recognizes young and senior investigators who are trying to understand and prevent childhood-onset epilepsy. The society seeks nominations for five awards to be made during its annual meeting in November. Two awards of $150,000 apiece go to senior investigators - one to a clinical researcher and the other to a basic scientist -whose research into the pediatric aspects of epilepsy has a long track

Henry I. Smith, a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's department of electrical engineering and computer science, has been named MIT's Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor in Electrical Engineering. The chair is named after the founder and chairman of the Cleveland-based Keithley Instruments Inc., a company that produces very-high-input impedance electronic instruments and semiconductor fabrication test equipment, and his wife. Smith is known as the originator of X-ray

A Stealth Technology Policy? Critics of the Bush administration's approach to what is nowadays called technology policy - that is, government actions meant to strengthen certain industries deemed essential for the health of the U.S. economy - had a field day during a hearing last month on the subject before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The chairman, Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), wondered whether a range of such key technologies "will receive government backing or

Bill TAPs Labs For Industry A New York congressman has introduced a bill that is meant to do for industry what the Department of Agriculture's extension service has long done for farming. The bill (H.R. 4659), entitled the Technology Access Program, would provide easy access to federally funded research for businesses nationwide, says Rep. John LaFalce (D-N.Y.). Modeled on both the federal extension service and a state-level technology access service in Minnesota, TAP would authorize the Nation

Jobs In Space For those scientists desiring a celestial career, the Princeton Planetary Society has the publication for you. PPS, a nonprofit, student-run education group at Princeton University in New Jersey, has recently published its premier edition of Space Jobs. The publication offers a listing of full-time job opportunities, most of which are entry-level openings, with consulting and engineering firms, NASA, and nonprofit organizations as well as summer employment opportunities and a spec