Don K. Gentry, associate dean of Purdue University's School of Technology and director of the Statewide Technology Program for Purdue since 1983, will take on a new post July 1 as dean of Purdue's School of Technology, the third largest school at the university. He succeeds George W. McNelly, who will return to teaching after 21 years as dean.
S. Allen Heininger, vice president of resource planning at Monsanto Co. in St. Louis, has been elected to a one-year term as president of the Industrial Research Institute. Heininger succeeds Roland W. Schmitt, senior vice president and chief scientist of General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y. The IRI, an association of 265 industrial companies, promotes cooperative efforts among its members and also maintains contact with the academic community and the government in matters related to research and technology. The new president-elect of the association is Keith W. McHenry Jr., vice president of research and development at Amoco Oil Company in Napervile, Ill., and the newly elected IRI vice president is Albert R.C. Westwood, corporate director of research and development at Baltimore's Martin Marietta Corp.
Five new members were also added to IRI's board of directors: Peter R. Bridenbaugh, Alcoa Laboratories; James L. Chitwood, Eastman Kodak Co. and Eastman Chemicals; Jacob C. Stucki, The Upjohn Co.; Eugene Y. Weissman, BASF Corp.; and Robert D. Wismer, Derre & Co.
Michael A.J. Rodgers, a physical scientist and authority on phototherapy used in cancer research, has been named an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green State University. The Eminent Scholars program was established in 1984 to attract top scholars to Ohio's universities. Rodgers, currently director of the Center for Fast Kinetics Research at the University of Texas at Austin, will move to Bowling Green in January.
George E. Rossmiller has been named director of the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy of Resources for the Future. The center was established in 1984, with a grant from the WK. Kellogg Foundation, to improve public understanding and examine food and agricultural policy issues. Rossmiller joined the staff in 1986 as a senior fellow. He previously directed planning and analysis at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service.
Hans Hornung, professor of physics at the University of Gottingen and director of the Institute for Experimental Fluid Mechanics in Gottingen, Germany, will move to the California Institute of Technology August 1 as director of the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories. He will also hold the first Clarence L. Johnson Professorship of Aeronautics, recently established through a gift from the Lockheed Corp. and Clarence (Kelly) Johnson.
Homer A. Neal, Leading Professor of Physics at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, will move to the University of Michigan next month as professor and chairman of the department of physics. Neal, a specialist in high energy physics, served on the National Science Board from 1980-86 and is currently chairman of the National Science Foundation Physics Advisory Committee.
Awards
Philip Morrison, professor of physics at the Center for Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was named first winner of the Gemant Award of the American Institute of Physics. The award was established to recognize significant contributions to the understanding of physics in relation to its surrounding culture. Morrison has served as book editor for Scientific American since 1965, and has been with MIT since 1975. He was cited for his "deep and broad contributions to understanding the aesthetic dimension of physics." The Gemant Award includes a prize of $5,000 and an additional grant of $3,000 for a fellowship or lecture series at a U.S. physics department chosen by the recipient.
Harry G. Drickamer, professor of chemical engineering, chemistry and physics at the University of IIlinois, will receive the prestigious Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry at an awards banquet November 2. Drickamer was recognized for his discovery of pressure tuning spectroscopy at high pressures and for work that advanced understanding of the molecular, atomic and electronic properties of matter. The annual award is presented by the Welch Foundation in Texas to honor contributions to chemical research "for the benefit of mankind." This year the award includes a prize of $225,000.
Ian M. Ross, president of AT&T Bell Laboratories, received the 1987 Industrial Research Institute Medal, recognizing outstanding leadership that benefits society and contributes to the development of industry. Ross was honored for his dynamic management of AT&T Bell Labs and for producing a steady stream of innovations and information technologies.
Emil Smith of the University of California, Los Angeles, has been named recipient of the Stein and Moore Award, in recognition of his contributions to protein chemistry. The award was established in memory of William H. Stein and Stanford Moore, who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize with Chris Anfinsen for their studies on ribonuclease. Smith, currently Emeritus Professor at UCLA, had worked with both Stein and Moore in the early 1940s at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. He later became chairman of the department of biochemistry at the University of Utah and, in 1963, moved to UCLA as professor and chairman of the school of medicine in the department of biochemistry. Smith will receive the $5,000 award at the first symposium of the Protein Society in August.
Frank H. Westheimer, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Harvard University, has been named recipient of the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society, the nation's highest award in chemistry. Westheimer is being recognized for his contributions to chemistry spanning more than 50 years, including his studies in the 1950s that revealed the molecular biology of cellular metabolism. Among Westheimer's previous honors were the National Medal of Science, the Robert A. Welch Award, and the Ingold Medal of the Royal Chemical Society. He will receive the Priestley Medal in June, 1988, at a chemical congress in Toronto.
Stanley Cohen, American Cancer Society professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt University Medical School, received the Franklin Medal at the 139th annual Medal Day ceremony of the Franklin Institute last month. Cohen was recognized for his studies of epidermal growth factor, research that also garnered the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine shared with Rita Levi-Montalcini. The Franklin medal, first presented in 1915 to Thomas Edison, honors scientists whose efforts have greatly advanced knowledge of physical science or its application.
The Franklin Institute bestowed nine additional awards at its Medal Day celebration: Paul Weidlinger, of Weidlinger Associates engineering firm, was presented the Frank P. Brown Medal for his extensive and original contributions to structural engineering and architecture. Among Weidlinger's designs are those of the CBS Headquarters building in New York and the earthquake-resistant Reader's Digest building in Tokyo. Theodore M. Bayless, of Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, was awarded the Bolton L. Corson Medal, which recognizes significant contributions to the field of human nutrition—for his research correlating different ethnic groups to lactase deficiency and milk rejection. His studies ultimately lead to the development of commercial dairy products for people with lactose intolerance.
Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrerof the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland were recipients of the Elliot Cresson Medal for developing of the Scanning Tun neling Microscope. The two received the Nobel prize in physics for their work last fall.
William Nierenberg, director emeritus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, received the Delmer S. Fahrney Medal, which recognizes extraordinary leadership in science or technology. Nierenberg was honored for building and directing scientific institutions and for formulating and executing national science policies.
Dennis Klatt of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was awarded the John Price Wetherhill Medal for his work in data to speech conversion and for improving the phonetic alphabet used as an intermediate step in the process. Rodolfo Bonifacio of the University of Milano and Luigi Lugiato of the Polytechnical Institute of Torino were presented the Albert A. Michelson Medal, which recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of optics. They were honored for their theoretical studies of optical bistability.
Joseph LeConte Smith, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT received the Edward Longstreth Medal for applying cryogenic techniques to mechanical processes. The award was established by the Franklin Institute in 1890 to recognize "inventions of high order and for particularly meritorious improvements in machines and mechanical processes."
Deaths
James G. Hirsch, an immunologist and president of the Josiah R. Macy Jr. Foundation, died of cancer in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center May 25. He was 64 years old. Hirsch received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1943 and his M.D. from Columbia University in 1946. In 1950 he joined the staff of The Rockefeller University, where he studied tuberculosis in the laboratory of René Dubos. In the 1960s, his pioneering research as head of the laboratory of cellular physiology and immunology led to important insights into the relationship between phagocytes and immune reactions. In 1981 he was appointed president of the Macy Foundation, where he initiated a program to encourage experimental pathology research and studies on the mechanisms of human diseases.
New Publications
Molecular Neurobiology, a quarterly review journal scheduled to be published next month, will cover such trends in neuroscience as the molecular mechanisms of memory and gene expression in the developing neurosystem. The subscription rate is $80 a year. Contact: Humana Press, Journals Department, Crescent Manor, P0 Box 2148, Clifton, NJ 07015. (201) 773-4389.
Science Impact, a monthly newsletter debuting this month, covers recent developments in science and technology and their impact on society. Founded and edited by former Science 86 editor Allen Hammond, the premier issue includes articles on earthquake prediction, superconductivity, the genetic basis for depression and an interview with neuroscientist Candace Pert. The charter subscription rate is $18 per year. For more information, contact: Science Impact, 9612 East Bexhill Drive, Kensington, MD 20895; (301) 949-1527.