Scripps Geophysicist Wins Balzan Prize; Honored For Contributions to Seismology

J. Freeman Gilbert, professor of geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, has been awarded a 1990 Balzan Prize in honor of his contributions to solid earth geophysics. The award, which includes a cash prize of approximately $230,000, was presented to Gilbert earlier this month in a ceremony at Rome's Academia Lincei, the world's oldest scientific society. The Balzan Prizes, three of which were awarded this year, are presented annually by the International Balzan Foundation of Milan, Italy. The foundation was established in 1956 to recognize contributions in areas ranging from literature and the arts to the physical and natural sciences. Past winners include Pope John XXIII, author Jorge Luis Borges, Mother Teresa di Calcutta, and the Nobel Foundation. Gilbert pioneered the establishment of global networks of seismic instruments. Through these networks, he says, researchers can measure the oscillations of the earth after an earthquake and, using these measurements, draw inferences about the three-dimensional structure of the earth deep beneath its surface. Gilbert and Scripps geophysics professor George Back-us have developed a general theory of inverting geophysical data that has been used successfully in this endeavor. Gilbert earned his Ph.D. in geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956. Following a postdoctoral stint at University of California, Los Angeles, he joined the Scripps faculty in 1961. He says that a pivotal event in the field of geophysics was the Chilean earthquake of May 22, 1960, the strongest earthquake recorded in the 20th century. For the first time, there were seismographic instruments around the world to collect data, and new computer technology was available to analyze the information. "It was a new era in seismology, and it led to yet another way to use seismological data to look at the interior of the earth," says Gilbert. "We could see that the earth was vibrating for days and days and days" following the quake. The Balzan award, regarded as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for fields not represented by a Nobel, is "an important recognition for my field," says Gilbert. "Geophysicists around the world should be happy that their field is being recognized internationally." He hopes that this honor will help people realize that geophysics is "not just [the study of] orders of magnitude; it's a very challenging intellectual endeavor that can yield new insight about our environment." --Rebecca Andrews The Minerva Foundation of Berkeley, Calif., presented its 1990 Golden Brain Award on October 18 to John Allman, Hixon Professor of Psychobiology at the California Institute of Technology, in recognition of his pioneering research on how the brain processes visual information. The privately funded foundation gives the award annually to honor fundamental research on vision and the brain. Allman, 47, earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1971. He became interested in primate brain evolution early. However, he says, "most anthropologists don't have enough background to study evolution of the brain. I realized that I needed to become a neurobiologist." Allman, who did postdoctoral work in neurophysiology at the University of Wisconsin, joined the faculty of Caltech in 1974. Allman is currently exploring the functions of the cortex in interpreting visual information. Recent research suggests that the visual cortex is arranged in a series of two dozen "maps," each of which contains a representation of the visual field. The individual maps, says Allman, apparently specialize in the analysis of different aspects of perception: One is restricted to the analysis of visual motion; another to the analysis of shape and form; yet another to the analysis of color. While each has a different function, says Allman, these maps act cooperatively to integrate visual information. Lately Allman has been investigating the role of memory in the interpretation of visual information. "When you first see anything new," he says, "it's hard to understand--it's `noisy,' sometimes disorienting. After a while, when you experience the same visual scene again . . . you recognize it." Allman believes that the visual cortex is involved in the storage of this "implicit memory." "I think the cortex stores, in these maplike structures, information about the local environment. It's what makes our lives simple." Allman points out that "this is a somewhat radical notion." Most researchers, he says, believe that these maps in the cortex are involved only in analysis of sensory input, not in the storage of information. However, he says, "when you see an object, there are so many different interpretations, and these are governed by past experience." Allman says that improvements in noninvasive imaging technologies, especially nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), will vastly contribute to the study of the brain. "Much of what we know comes from microelectronic recording, which is one cell at a time," he explains. Advances in NMR, such as improved resolution and more rapid imaging capabilities, "will allow us to look at the whole brain." The ability to examine the functions of the various parts of the brain, and the ways in which they are integrated, he adds, "will change the questions we ask." --Rebecca Andrews Robin M. Hochstrasser, Donner Professor of Physical Science at the University of Pennsylvania, received the American Chemical Society's 25th Philadelphia Section Award at a banquet on October 17. The award, presented annually, is the highest honor given by ACS' fourth largest section. Hochstrasser, 59, is recognized as one of the pioneers of the use of picosecond (1 x 10-12 second) and femtosecond (1 x 10-15 second) laser pulses to examine events taking place within molecules. He is the director of the National Institutes of Health's Regional Laser and Biotechnology Laboratories. Over the years, Hochstrasser's lab has produced a number of successful scientists, including Ahmed H. Zewail, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics at the California Institute of Technology; William A. Eaton, chief of the laboratory of chemical physics at NIH; Edwin J. Heilweil, research chemist, National Institute of Standards and Technology; and Gerald J. Small, professor of chemistry at Iowa State University. Among the research areas to which he has recently made groundbreaking contributions are picosecond gas phase reaction dynamics (with B.I. Greene and R.B. Weisman; J. Chem. Phys., 71:544, 1979), application of nonlinear optical spectroscopy to molecular systems (with H.P. Trommsdorff; Accounts of Chemical Research, 16:376, 1983), and molecular dynamics from ultrafast time-resolved infrared spectroscopy (with P.A. Anfinrud and coworkers; PNAS, 86:8387, 1989). A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Hochstrasser received his B.Sc. from Heriot-Watt University in 1952 and his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1955. He began his career as an instructor at the University of British Columbia in 1957 and came to Penn as an associate professor in 1963, becoming a full professor in 1967. He was selected to hold the university's Blanchard Chair in 1971, and was named to the Donner professorship in 1983. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Douglas J. Henderson, a scientist at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., has been named a corresponding member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He is the first non-Mexican citizen to be so honored. Henderson has collaborated with Mexican scientists since 1974. Most recently, in the spring of 1988, he served as Manuel Sandoval Vallarta Distinguished Visiting Professor of Physics at the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City. Henderson's research involves the behavior of water and charged atoms at charged metal surfaces. His theories are used to describe chemical reactions that occur within chemical batteries. Henderson earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Utah in 1961, and joined IBM in 1969. In April, he returned to Salt Lake City to collaborate with scientists at the new Utah Supercomputing Institute at the University of Utah, while maintaining his position at IBM.

Scripps Geophysicist Wins Balzan Prize; Honored For Contributions to Seismology

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