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Denis Burkitt, who first established the link between a virus and a cancer and later helped demonstrate the importance of adding more fiber to the Western diet, has received the Bower Award and Prize in Science. The three-year-old award carries a cash prize of $373,000, and will be formally presented in January by Philadelphia's Franklin Institute to honor outstanding work in the life or physical sciences. Members of the international committee that chose the 81-year-old Burkitt to receive t

Despite advances in brain research, career horizons remain foggy for the researchersAs the Society for Neuroscience convenes its 22nd annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., this month, researchers will share a wealth of new knowledge about the central nervous system--about, for example, the uses of monoclonal antibody technology in studying the brain and the cognitive consequences of aging. But, as in other scientific disciplines, neuroscience research gains have not translated easily into achi

New agency rules will require universities to ensure that grantees have no monetary stake in corporate enterprises The Department of Health and Human Services is moving ahead with final work on long-awaited regulations to deal with financial conflict-of-interest questions involving researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health and other Public Health Service (PHS) agencies, NIH officials confirm. A draft of the regulations obtained by The Scientist puts nearly all responsibility f

Better pay and richer research environments in the business sector lure young science grads away from academic labs Two years ago, when Thomas Malvar was finishing his doctorate in molecular immunology, he came to a major career crossroads. Should he go the traditional route and do his postdoctoral training in a university? Or should he follow a more adventurous path and do his postdoc in industry--a road that some of his professors warned was a professional dead end? Like a small but growin

Figures recently released by the Department of Energy indicate that the once-booming field of nuclear science continues to lose its appeal among young researchers--a trend that academic and government observers consider a growing threat to the United States nuclear industry. The DOE statistics--tallies on university enrollment that the department collects annually--show a steadily declining number of young scientists enrolling in nuclear engineering departments in United States academic insti

There won't be any loss of continuity in the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards program caused by the recent death of Alice Fordyce, former executive vice president of the New York- based Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, say scientists associated with the program. Fordyce died September 9 at the age of 86, after a brief illness. Jordan U. Gutterman, who replaced Fordyce as Lasker Foundation executive vice president and director of the Lasker awards program on Dec. 31, 1990, says that the

NAS On The Move Patently Extraordinary Grants for Health-Related Projects My Lab Has Fleas SSC Helps Minority Businesses Sea Stories Bruce M. Alberts, a biochemist and molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, has been nominated to succeed 12-year president Frank Press as head of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Alberts was selected by special committee and approved by the academy's 17-member governing council. Other individuals may be nominated by petit

Although funding has been restored for the superconducting supercollider, the skies have not cleared over the Dallas-based project, as well-founded fears of another budget wrangle next year persist, say SSC officials. The Senate voted on August 3 in favor of continued SSC funding after the House voted the project down on June 17, but physicists associated with the SSC say they are still wary. They are concerned over a Congress that will have as many as 130 new members after this fall's election

With knowledge gained, surgeons and researchers in Pittsburgh proceed with ambitious plans for xenotransplantation Clinicians and medical researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are pressing forward with plans for a series of four baboon-to-human liver transplants, even after the death earlier this month of the first human recipient of a baboon liver. Despite the recipient's death, and despite strong opposition from animal rights groups, the transplant team hopes interspecie

Controversy centers on whether and how the elite science body should deal with members whose behavior is questionable For the first time in its 129-year history, the National Academy of Sciences has sent a letter to one of its members hinting that he should resign. The unprecedented move has called into question the academy's role as an ostensibly apolitical body. The ensuing debate has focused on, among other issues, whether NAS should censure its members whose activities are offensive to a l

The award ceremony will take place in Toronto on October 23; the winners will divide the foundation's largess, which totals $220,000 Canadian.

In an effort to cope with hurdles posed by the post-Cold War "new order," National Science Foundation director Walter E. Massey is looking to a 15-member special panel to assist NSF with charting out a "new strategic plan" to the year 2000 and beyond. Massey says he is hopeful that the newly formed Special Commission on the Future of the NSF, which he announced during an August 13-14 presentation before the National Science Board (NSB), will serve to complement the "long-range planning process"