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AWIS Chooses Wisconsin Botany Professor As President- Elect Stanford's Bradford Parkinson Named New Head Of NASA Advisory Council JAN HOLMGREN awarded the Louis Jeantet Prix de Medecine JAMES WOMACK received the 1993/94 Ciba Prize For Research In Animal Health BRUCE R. VOELLER -- Obituary Author: CRAIG MONTESANO Jaleh Daie, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been voted president-elect of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Daie, a member of the Wisconsin faculty since 1993, will assume the position in 1996. Currently, Daie is senior science adviser to the senior vice president for academic affairs of the University of Wisconsin system, and is involved in improving science education programs. From 1985 until last year, she was a faculty member at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. There, she was founding director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Turfgrass Science and director of the school's plant biology graduate program. She also was chairwoman of Rutgers' crop science department and the George H. Cook undergraduate honors program. Chief among Daie's stated goals for the society is the formation of an AWIS-led Women in Science Consortium that will be made up of societies, federal agencies, and private foundations. She also plans to increase cooperative efforts with other national scientific and education organizations that have missions similar to AWIS's. She says her idea for a consortium is modeled after the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for Women in Politics. "I saw their success in terms of having real impact with the current administration--submitting names of women and seeing quite a lot of these people appointed to positions," she says. Daie, 45, received her Ph.D. in plant physiology from Utah State University in 1980, and her M.S. in horticulture from the University of California, Davis, in 1975. From 1983 to 1985, she was an assistant professor of biology at Utah State University. From 1980 to 1982, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. --Craig Montesano Bradford W. Parkinson, 59, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, has been named chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advisory Council. The council, made up of 21 members selected by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin, provides management and strategic advice to the administrator. Overall, Parkinson sees the council's role as helping Goldin to "sort out priorities, in particular strategic priorities." As far as research recommendations are concerned, he says, "I believe that one of the major missions of NASA has always been to move into the frontiers of science." The council will also give advice on some of the housekeeping functions at NASA. There are "some management processes that could stand some scrutiny and overhaul," such as procurement policies that "drag out for months," says Parkinson. Parkinson, a retired United States Air Force colonel, is active in two primary areas of research. He is program manager and co-principal investigator of the NASA-sponsored Gravity Probe B project, a space shuttle mission under development to test aspects of Einstein's theory of general relativity. As Parkinson puts it, most people think that it is an accepted theory, but "it turns out that Einstein himself knew that it was a little wrong" and spent the last 40 years of his life trying to refine it. This project aims to test some of the more uncertain elements of the theory, says Parkinson. He is also involved in research that deals with the Global Positioning System (GPS), the largest system of satellites-- 24 in all--orbiting the Earth. GPS is used by a variety of disciplines, from petrology to geography, for pinpointing positions on the Earth's surface. Throughout his career, Parkinson has held a number of positions in academia, business, and the military. Prior to coming to Stanford in 1984, he was vice president and manager of Intermetrics Inc., a software and systems engineering firm based in Cambridge, Mass. At Stanford he holds a joint appointment with the aeronautics and astronautics department and the W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory. Among numerous honors, Parkinson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1990 and in 1991 received the Johannes Kepler Award for Leadership in satellite-based navigation. He received his M.S. degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961 and his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics (guidance and control) from Stanford in 1966. Commenting on what's in store for NASA, Parkinson says, "I'm very optimistic about the future of NASA ... and fundamentally believe in what they're trying to do." Jan Holmgren, a microbiologist at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has been awarded the Louis Jeantet Prix de Medecine for his work in vaccine development. He received the prize, accompanied by a cash award of 611,000 Swiss francs (U.S. $417,000), during ceremonies in Geneva last month. The prize, which is awarded by the Louis Jeantet Foundation, based at the University of Geneva, helps fund completion of important current research, rather than honor past accomplishments. Holmgren is being recognized for his work in developing vaccines against infections--namely cholera--that invade through mucosal linings, such as those in the respiratory and digestive tracts. The World Health Organization has tested a vaccine based on his cholera research and so far has immunized 200,000 people worldwide, according to a statement from Syntello Inc., a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company working with Holmgren. Holmgren, who is head of the department of medical microbiology and immunology at Gothenburg, serves on numerous international boards of directors and has been an invited speaker or chairman at more than 100 international conferences. He received his Ph.D. (1969) and M.D. (1973) from the University of Gothenburg. James Womack, a geneticist from Texas A&M University in College Station, has received the 1993/1994 Ciba Prize for Research in Animal Health, given every two years for significant contributions in animal heath or husbandry. He was recognized by Ciba-Geigy Corp. at ceremonies in Basel, Switzerland, for his work in mapping the genome of domestic cattle. The research of Womack, the W.P. Luse Endowed Professor in Veterinary Pathobiology, has shown the extent of genetic similarity between cattle and both mice and humans. He also directs the Texas A&M Institute for Biosciences and Technology's Center for Animal Genetics and is a Human Genome Project researcher. He received the Carrington Award for research in cell biology in 1990 and the Faculty of Genetics research award in 1993, both honors from Texas A&M. Womack earned his B.S. in mathematics from Abilene Christian College in 1964 and his Ph.D. in genetics from Oregon State University in 1968. Bruce R. Voeller, 59, an AIDS researcher and founder of the Mariposa Education and Research Foundation, died of AIDS on February 13 at his home in Topanga, Calif. Voeller, a biologist, was perhaps best known for coining the acronym AIDS, for "acquired immune deficiency syndrome," a term he used in objection to the disease's earlier label, GRID, which stood for "gay-related immune disorder." A prominent gay rights activist, Voeller cofounded the National Gay Task Force (NGTF) with former New York City Health Commissioner Harold Brown ill 1973. He served as NGTF's executive director from 1973 to 1978. In 1980, Voeller established the Mariposa Foundation based in Topanga, to conduct human sexuality research, placing special emphasis on reducing the risks of sexually transmitted diseases (B. Spector, The Scientist, March 2, 1992, page 1). From 1961 to 1972, he held various positions on the faculty of Rockefeller University. At the time of his death, Voeller's research with the Mariposa Foundation centered on the reliability of various brands of condoms in preventing the spread of diseases. A result of this research was a study funded in part by the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the National Institutes of Health, that ranked 31 brands of condoms under various conditions. Voeller was also conducting viral leakage studies for the recently approved "female" condom.

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