Happenings

Paul J. Fink has been elected president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. He succeeds George Pollock, who is the new president of the 35,000-member association. Fink is medical director of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Albert Einstein Medical Center, and professor and deputy chairman of the department of psychiatry at Temple University Health Sciences Center. Kenneth L. Nordtvedt Jr. has been nominated by President Reagan to serve a three-year term on the National Science Board, the policymaking arm of the National Science Foundation. Nordtvedt, a professor of physics at Montana State University since 1970, has served as a member of the Montana House of Representatives from 1979 to 1984 and also worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy. His nomination to the 24-member board is subject to Senate approval. Roger E. Batzel, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has announced his intention to retire on December 1, his 67th birthday. Batzel has been associated with Livermore since 1951 and directed the laboratory since 1971. The University of California, which operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy, is selecting a search committee for his successor. Edward G. Cumesty is the newly appointed deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Chicago Operations Office, which oversees the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories. Cumesty has been with the DOE since 1977, serving most recently as assistant manager for laboratory management in the Chicago office. Ira W. Pence Jr. is the new director of the Material Handling Research Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The only nationwide center for research in material bandling, the center is staffed by 35 people, including faculty and students, and serves approximately 25 member companies, such as General Motors, The Coca-Cola Co., the Naval Supply Command, and AT&T. Pence replaced John White, Regents' professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, who had directed the center since its inception in 1981. Awards Lawrence H. Summers, professor of economics at Harvard University, has been named recipient of the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award. The award, presented annually to an outstanding young researcher, includes up to $500,000 in NSF grant money for three years of research and advanced studies. Summers, whose research has focused on the economic analysis of capital and labor markets, is the first economist to receive the Waterman Award since its inception in 1975. The award will be presented at a May20 ceremony. Lois K. Cohen was named the first recipient of the Distinguished Senior Scientist Award of the International Association for Dental Research Behavioral Sciences Group. Cohen is assistant director for International Health and chief of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Communications at the National Institute of Dental Research. She received the award, which is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Products, for her work toward establishing behavioral and social sciences as an integrated part of dental research. Amar G. Bose and William R. Short were named Inventors of the Year for 1987 by Intellectual Property Owners, Inc., a non-profit association that represents owners of patents, trademarks and copyrights. The two were recognized for developing a compact, high-efficiency loudspeaker system. Bose is a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder and chairman of the board of the Bose Corp. in Framingham, Mass. Short serves as president of Bose Corp. Also honored by the IPO were Abe Widra of the University of illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, and Saul and Malon Kit of the Baylor College of Medicine. The three were named Distinguished Inventors for 1987—Widra for developing a synthetic skin that combines keratin with chitosan, and the Kits, a father and son team, for their genetically engineered vaccine to fight pseudorabies. Alan Townshend, professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Hull, U.K., has been named recipient of the 1987 AnalaR Gold Medal for his "outstanding contribution to analytical chemistry." The award, which is presented every three years by BDH Ltd., was established in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of AnalaR standards in chemicals. Townshend will receive the award at a ceremony at the Royal Society in London on October 15. Robert A. Gross, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan, received the S. Weir Mitchell Award for his studies of barbituates and nifedipine. The annual award, established by the American Academy of Neurology in 1955, recognizes research in the neurosciences by physicians who are completing post-graduate work in clinical neurology. It includes an honorarium of $500. Deaths Herbert Blumer, 87, a nationally acclaimed sociologist and emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, died April 13 at his home in Danville, Calif., after a long illness. Blumer earned his doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1927 while studying under George Herbert Meade, a leading figure in the field of social psychology. Blumer made important contributions to the area of sociology known as the Chicago School of Symbolic Interactionism and is also credited with being the first to promote the discussion of methodological issues as an important concern of sociologists. A past president of the American Sociological Association, Blumer received the association's Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship in 1983, the ASA's top honor. George Khoury, 43, chief of the laboratory of molecular virology at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, died April25 at NIH of complications of lymphoma. Khoury specialized in the study of gene regulation in mammalian cells and was instru-mental in discovering the importance of enhancer sequences. Khoury had been with NIH since 1971 and in 1980 he was named chief of the laboratory of molecular virology. Among the awards Khoury has received are the 1981 Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding government service and the 1977 Outstanding Young Maryland Scientist. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences three days after his death. Andrel Severny, 73, a Soviet scientist who helped pioneer the use of Earth-orbiting satellites for astronomical observations, died April 4, according to the Soviet press. Severny had been director of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory since 1952 and was an expert on solar flares, receiving the Stalin Prize for his work in 1952. Severny served as a vice president of the International Astronomical Union from 1964 to 1970 and was named a full member of the Soviet Academy Sciences in 1968.

Happenings

The Scientist Staff

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