Happenings

PEOPLE AWARDS DEATHS OPPORTUNITIES ECETERA MEETINGS Richard J. Gowen, president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology became 1988 chairman of the American Association of Engineering Societies on January 1. John W. Ahien, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, director of the Arkansas Capital Corp. and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's science adviser, was elected chairman of the AAES public affairs council, and Delon Hampton, president of Delon Hampton&Associates, Chtr. was named vice chairman. Bayard T. McWilliams president of McWilliams Engineering, Inc., was elected chairman of the AAES engineering affairs council, and Louis M. Laushey, emeritus dean of engineering and professor of civil engineering at the University of Cincinnati; was made vice chairman.George Kotnick, AAES secretary- treasurer for 1987, was named chairman-elect of the AAES board of governors. Harold S.Kemp, retired from E.T. du Pont de Nemours&Co., was elected AAES secretary-treasurer. Pradip K. Sinha, former professor at the University of Keele and lecturer at the University 0f Warwick, became professor of electronic engineering at the U.K. University of Reading in January. Sinha studied mathematics, physics and electrical engineering at the University of Calcutta and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and received a doctorate in control engineering from the University of Sussex in 1974. Kevin Warwick, senior lecturer at the University of Warwick, will become professor of cybernetics at Reading in August. Warwick earned his doctorate from Imperial College, London, in 1982. Sinha and Warwick replace Eric Faulkner and Peter Fellgett, who have retired. James King Jr. became deputy assistant laboratory director, Office of Technical Divisions of NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory on, January 4, King most recently was manager of JPL's Space Science Applications Program in the Office of Technology and Space Program Development. He joined JPL in 1961 as a senior scientist in chemistry and has served as NASA'S director of shuttle environmental effects and director of the upper atmospheric research program. William S. Galther, former president of Drexel University, became vice president of Roy F. Weston Inc. and manager of its information and decision systems division on January 14, Gaither resigned as president of Drexel in October. Weston, an environmental consulting firm located in West Chester, Pa., has 41 offices nationwide. The Robert Koch Foundation of West Germany has awarded HansJ. Muller-Eberhard, adjunct professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, the 1987 Robert Koch Gold Medal for his research on the molecular basis of human complement activation and its applications to clinical medicine. Muller Eberhard received a medical degree from the University of Goettinger Medical School, West Germany and a Ph.D. in medical sciences from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He joined UCSD in 1968. Isidor Isaac Rabi, 89, a pioneer in atomic physics, died January 11, at his home in N.Y. after a long illness. Rabi, a native of Rymanow, Austria-Hungary, won the 1944 Nobel Prize in physics for research on the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. His work led to the development of the atomic clock, the laser, and nuclear magnetic resonance scanning. Rabi was instrumental in the development of the CERN nuclear research center in Geneva, the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island and the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. He joined Columbia University as a graduate student in 1923 and worked on the development of radar during World War II and atomic energy during the 1950s. He was senior science adviser on the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb. Rabi organized the first International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, and remained a major influence in U.S. science policy-making into the 1980s. Carl Shipp Marvel, 93, an expert in the development of synthetic polymers, died January 4 in Tucson, Ariz. Marvel contributed to the development of polybenzimid azole, a material used in flame-repellent suits worn by astronauts, and to the development of synthetic rubber used in World War II and later in automobile tires and plastic wrap. He pioneered polymer plastics technology and his students have helped develop nylon, orlon, neoprene and mylar. Arthur W Waltner, 73, an expert in nuclear physics and instrumentation and North Carolina State University professor emeritus of physics, died in his home in Raleigh, N.C. on January 14. Waltner earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then taught physics there for three years before joining NCSU as assistant professor in 1948. He contributed to the construction of NCSU's nuclear reactor in 1952, the world's first university-owned reactor. W Robert Marshall, 71, chemical engineer and director of the University-Industry Research Program at the University of Wisconsin Madison, died January 14, Marshall earned his Ph.D. from UW-Madison in 1941 and returned to the university in 1947 as associate professor of chemical engineering. He served as dean of the engineering college from 1971-81 and initiated educational programs on the impact of technology on society. The international Federation for information Processing has issued a call for papers for the 11th World Computer Congress, August 29-31, 1989, in San Francisco, hosted by the American Federation of Information Processing Societies. The congress will consist of the following eleven tracks: fundamental tools, languages and operating systems, communication and distributed systems, knowledge-based systems, software engineering, supercomputing, VLSI-CAD tools, office automation, factory automation, education, and computer and society. Papers should address emerging computer tools in these areas and the impact of scientific and technical changes. Contact: Herve Gallaire, ECRC, Arabellastrasse 17, D-8000 Munich 81, Federal Republic of Germany. WHYY/TV Philadelphia aired Plagues, a one-hour documentary on epidemic disease, on January 20, Hosted by Nobel laureate Baruch Blumberg, vice president for population oncology and senior member of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, the program traces the development of and attempts to control the 1918 Spanish Flu, cholera, Legionnaire's Disease, malaria and AIDS. Blumberg focuses on the role of epidemiologists and travels through the United States, England, Australia and the South Pacific. The documentary is scheduled to be shown nationally over the PBS network on May 11. Contact: Arthur Ellis, WHYY-TV, Independence Mall West, 150 N. 6th St., Philadelphia, PA 19106; (215) 351-1262. May 8-10, 1988. first international Conference on Scientific Data Audit Policies and Quality Assurance. University of Maryland at College Park. For more information, contact Adil Shamoo, Department of Biological Chemistry, 660 West Redwood St, Baltimore, MD 21201; (301) 328-3327. Engineering Optics an Institute of Physics reprint journal that contains applied and engineering optics papers previously published in IOP journals, debuts this month The quarterly journal covers papers on fiber optics; optical communications, Integrated Optics optical sensors, lasers and displays and optical systems design. Charter two-year subscription rates are $56 (25 pounds U.K., 32 pounds overseas); personal subscriptions are $28 per year (12.50 pounds U.K., 16 pounds overseas); institutional subscriptions are $79 (45 pounds U.K.) per year. For more information, contact: American Institute of Physics, Marketing Services, 335 East 45th St., New York, NY 10017; (516) 349-7800, or Geraldine Pounsford, IOP Publishing Ltd., Techno House, Redcliffe Way, Bristol BSI 6NX. Telephone: 0272 297481.

Happenings

The Scientist Staff

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