People : NYU's Courant Institute Appoints Director, Noted Genome Researcher Gets Environmental Health Award, NSF Names Chemistry Division Head; Obituary

David McLaughlin -- NYU's Courant Institute Appoints Director Noted Genome Researcher, Francis Collins, Gets Environmental Health Award James Osteryoung -- NSF Names Chemistry Division Head Paleontologist William Elgin Swinton -- Obituary Date: July 11, 1994, pp.22 David W. McLaughlin, formerly a professor of mathematics at Princeton University in New Jersey, assumed his post as the new director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University (NYU) on July 1. The appointment has brought Mc-Laughlin, 49, full circle to New York City and Courant, where he began his academic career 24 years ago. A specialist in the mathematical theory of nonlinear waves, Mc-Laughlin says one of his main interests as director will be to expand the scope of the institute's research by making interdisciplinary appointments, bringing on board people from other science departments, the medical school, and the finance department at NYU. "There are certain molecular biology questions, like protein folding, that have their answers in both mathematics and computation, both of which are the areas of specialties at Courant," he says. "I'm also exploring the possibility of a joint appointment with the neurosciences department," he says, citing computer modeling of the visual cortex as an example of a cross- disciplinary application. A native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, McLaughlin received his Ph.D. in physics from Indiana University in 1971, moving to applied mathematics research with his first academic appointment. His most recent position before coming to the Courant Institute was as the director of the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton. Award Francis S. Collins, director of the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., has been named the recipient of the 1994 Award for Excellence in Environmental Health Research from The Lovelace Institutes (TLI) of Albuquerque, N.Mex. The award was presented to Collins on June 9 at a dinner hosted by TLI. Prior to the dinner, Collins gave a public lecture, titled "The Human Genome Project and the Future of Medicine." Collins, who with his colleagues was responsible for identifying the genes causing disorders like cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease, spoke about the accomplishments of the Human Genome Project, which is charged with identifying all the genes that make up the human chromosomes. Relating his work to the theme of the award, he pointed out that a disease was "the outcome of the interactions between genes and the environment," and discussed the possibility that the project's findings will lead to the discovery of new ways to treat a host of diseases. Collins is now investigating genes that trigger ovarian and breast cancers. Collins, 44, obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., in 1974, and an M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977. He served on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, from 1984 till April 1993, when he was appointed to NCHGR. Janet Osteryoung, a professor and head of the chemistry department at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, has been selected as the new director of the chemistry division of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. Osteryoung, who will begin in the position on September 1, will oversee a $120 million program that supports research and education in the chemical sciences. The recent interest of Congress in stimulating NSF to focus on strategic research, she feels, provides an opportunity within the division to promote certain neglected areas of research. "It is a misconception to think of basic and strategic research as being different," she says. "We just need to orient the basic research towards problems that are strategically important. "The transport and fate of toxic heavy metals, for example, is an area where we understand too little about the kinetics and mechanisms of their aqueous chemistry." This area of research, she notes, would lead to a "better understanding and solution of an environmental problem." Until she assumes her directorship, Osteryoung, 55, will serve as a consultant to NSF. She obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and held appointments at several universities before coming to Raleigh in 1992. William Elgin Swinton, a paleontologist who wrote the first textbook on dinosaurs and was a tutor to Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth, died on June 12 in Toronto. He was 93 years old. Swinton was a prominent authority on dinosaurs and author of nine books on the prehistoric creatures, including The Dinosaurs (London, T. Murby and Co., 1934), considered the first textbook on the subject. Much of his research was conducted in the course of his tenure as paleontologist in the natural history branch of the British Museum from 1924 to 1961. During that time, he also instructed a young Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret. Throughout World War II, he served in British naval intelligence, retiring as a lieutenant commander. Swinton left the British Museum to join the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1961 as head of its life sciences division. In 1963 he was appointed director and retired two years later, although he went on to serve on the planning board of the museum and the planning board of the Ontario Science Centre. He was also a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto from 1962 to 1966, and served as an emeritus professor there and a fellow or visiting professor at several other academic institutions. Born in Scotland, Swinton received his Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1931. Among the many prizes and honorary degrees he gathered was the 1959 Darwin Medal.

People : NYU's Courant Institute Appoints Director, Noted Genome Researcher Gets Environmental Health Award, NSF Names Chemistry Division Head; Obituary

Jul 10, 1994

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