At NASA At NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator Daniel Goldin has appointed Pennylvania State University astrophysicist France Cordova to become the agency's chief scientist, effective sometime this month. According to NASA, Cordova will be the administrator's senior scientific adviser and will serve as the principal liaison between the agency and the national and international science community and the general public. Cordova, 46, who has been the head of Penn Sta

to deepen the influence of its prestigious membership In the very near future, if things go according to plan, the traditionally low-profile Washington, D.C.-based Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) will be exerting influence in the science community far greater than it has ever exerted before in its 20-year history. According to its new executive director, Martin Apple, the organization--whose membership comprises past, present, and future leaders of some 60 scientific societ

John L. VandeBerg has been appointed scientific director of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR). VandeBerg, 46, has headed SFBR's department of genetics since 1982. He began his new position October 1. The nonprofit foundation is located in San Antonio. Its 2,700 primates are used in a variety of studies on human diseases. The foundation studies atherosclerosis, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis, as well as infectious diseases, such as HIV, hepatitis, and

Animal Welfare Group Creates Award Honoring Veterinarian The founder and first executive director of the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC), Harry C. Rowsell, will be honored as the first recipient of an award created in his name by the Bethesda, Md.-based Scientists Center for Animal Welfare (SCAW). The Harry C. Rowsell Award will be presented to him in November at SCAW's national meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Rowsell says he hopes the award will raise researchers' awareness of the importa

Vincent Joseph Schaefer, a chemist at General Electric Co. for more than 20 years, died July 25. He was 87 years old. Schaefer is best known for inventing artificially induced precipitation, called "cloud seeding," by dropping dry ice through natural clouds to produce snow. He worked at GE in Schenectady, N.Y., from 1933 to 1954, the first five years as research assistant to Nobel laureate Irving Langmuir, who won the prize in 1932 for studies in surface chemistry. In 1959, Schaefer founded t

Administrator Is Nominated As Secretary Of Air Force Departing Healy Appoints Immunologist, Richard J. Hodes, As Director of National Institute On Aging Obituary ~ Clarence M. Zener AUTHOR: Ron Kaufman, pp.21 Author: Ron Kaufman Sheila E. Widnall, associate provost and a professor of aeronautics and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was nominated last month by President Clinton to become secretary of the Air Force. Pending Senate confirmation, Widnall would become

A report released last month by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) proposes the creation of a National Vaccine Authority (NVA) to oversee the entire process of vaccine research and development in the United States. The authority will also act as a liaison between the federal government and private industry for vaccine production. The report discusses, among other topics, the role of applied research in the development of new or improved vaccines against such diseases as tetanus and cholera both

Colleagues and other scientists familiar with him describe theoretical physicist Neal F. Lane, President Bill Clinton's nominee for the directorship of the National Science Foundation, as "open-minded," "straightforward," and a "consensus-builder." They also say that these and other attributes of the Rice University provost will be necessary to defend and advance basic research as budgetary constraints tighten around the science agency. If confirmed, Lane, 54, will replace Walter E. Massey, wh

Author: Ron Kaufman, p.21 Marc H. Brodsky says that when he takes over as the director and chief executive officer of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) on November 1, one important goal of his will be to establish a positive public perception of physics. "We must begin to give the public some understanding of what physics is and what physicists do," says Brodsky, 54, a researcher in amorphous semiconductors who has been working at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center since 196

AUTHOR : RON KAUFMAN, p.3 As he launched his run for the presidency a year ago, Bill Clinton energized scientists, environmental activists, and concerned citizens throughout the United States with his promise of "a new covenant for environmental progress." While deriding the claim of his White House predecessor, George Bush, of being "the environmental president," Clinton vowed aggressively to combat or remedy the pollution and destruction of the nation's air, land, and water. Constantly at h

Those who now experiment on living creatures say alternative methods may eventually diminish their reliance on animals Author: RON KAUFMAN, pp. 1, 8 Despite increasing and frequently violent protests by animal rights activists, biomedical researchers throughout the United States say they have no intention of curtailing their use of whole-animal subjects as they deem them necessary. For these researchers--even as the development of such alternatives to animal subjects as cell cultures

The Houston-based Robert A. Welch Foundation has selected Gilbert Stork, a professor, emeritus, of chemistry at Columbia University, to receive its 1993 award in chemistry. The 39-year- old foundation presents the award annually to a chemist credited with significant research contributions that have had a positive influence on humankind. Stork will receive $225,000 and a gold medallion at a formal ceremony in Houston on October 25. Stork's research has involved the organic synthesis of c