Posted May 5, 1999

Six Faculty Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Six campus faculty have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences -- the largest contingent from any institution in the country. This brings to 125 the total number of NAS members on campus, not to mention three foreign associates.

The six new members are Elwyn Berlekamp and Vaughan Jones, professors of mathematics; Steven Lindow, professor of plant and microbial biology; Richard Saykally, professor of chemistry; Kenneth Wachter, chairman of demography and professor of demography and statistics; and William "Jack" Welch, professor of astronomy and of electrical engineering.

They were among 60 new members and 15 new foreign associates announced April 27, chosen by the academy "in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research."

Election to membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors for an American scientist or engineer. Those elected bring the total number of active members to 1,825.

Ten Berkeley Faculty Elected AAAS Fellows

Among the newest elected members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science are nine Berkeley professors and an associate dean.

They are: Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology Nicholas Cozzarelli; Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology Alexander Glazer; Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology Wilhelm Gruissem; Professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management Robert Lane; Professor of Public Health Lee Riley; Associate Dean of the School of Public Health Richard Stephens; Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology Jeremy Thorner; Professor of Chemistry Terry Tilley; Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology Loy Volkman; and Professor of Neurobiology Robert Zucker.

Four Faculty Awarded Guggenheim Fellowships

Four Berkeley professors have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for 1999. They are Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science; David Frick, professor of Slavic language and literature; Jeffrey Knapp, associate professor of English; and Montgomery Slatkin, professor of integrative biology.

Guggenheim fellows are appointed "on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment."

Elizabeth Abel

Associate Professor of English Elizabeth Abel has been named a Howard Fellow for 1999-2000 by the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation. The $20,000 fellowship will go towards Abel's project "Signs of the Times: The Visual Politics of Jim Crow."

Abel was one of 11 fellows chosen from a field of 160. The award is administered by Brown University.

Darleane Hoffman Receives Priestley Medal

Chemistry Professor Darleane Hoffman has been chosen to receive the Priestley Medal, the highest honor of the American Chemical Society. Hoffman is only the second woman honored with the medal. The first, Mary L. Good, received it in 1997.

The award, announced in a recent issue of the society's publication, Chemical and Engineering News, recognizes distinguished service to chemistry. Hoffman, professor at Berkeley since 1984, is also a faculty senior scientist and co-leader of the Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Hoffman says she was very surprised and honored to win.

"It is especially meaningful to me because, these days, few nuclear scientists receive this type of broad-based recognition," she said. "I'm particularly pleased that ACS thought my contributions in general were sufficient to merit such an award."

Hoffman also was recognized with the National Medal of Science in 1997.

Hoffman's accomplishments include the discovery of plutonium-244 in nature, the first observation of enhanced symmetric mass division in spontaneous fission of heavy fermium isotopes, the first direct proof of electron-capture delayed fission, and the development of "atom-at-a-time" chemistry, which permits the study of heavy elements with half-lives of a minute or less.

Andrea Sevetson

Andrea Sevetson, government information librarian for the Library, is among five people recently named to serve on the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer.

The council advises the U.S. Government Printing Office on issues related to public access to government information products through the Federal Depository Library Program. Sevetson will serve on the 15-member national advisory council for a three-year term.

May 5 - 11, 1999 (Volume 27, Number 33)
Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California.
Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley.
Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.