11 OCTOBER 00 |

Leon Chua In addition to the Millennium Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, announced recently in the Berkeleyan, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences Leon Chua received three other major honors in recent months.

The institute's Circuits and Systems Society awarded him its Golden Jubilee Medal for his contributions to the society, and he won the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award for the quality and significance of his technical achievements. The awards were presented at international conferences in Geneva, Switzerland and Lake Como, Italy.

Chua was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Catania in Sicily, Italy, the first ever given to an engineer by that university.

April Kutger

The acting management services officer at the Institute of European Studies, April Kutger, is the recipient of the Society of Research Administrators' Rod Rose Award. Her article, "Hiring the Unlikely to Do the Unusual" - on ways to recruit and retain excellent employees in a tight market, even when they don't present the preferred experience or education - was selected by the editorial review board as the year's most outstanding contribution to the Journal of Research Administration.

Kutger is president of the society's Northern California chapter through May 2001. The award will be presented Oct. 24 its annual meeting awards luncheon,in St. Louis.

William Lester Jr.

President Clinton on Sept. 19 named Chemistry Professor William Lester Jr. to serve as a member of the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science.

A Berkeley chemistry professor since 1981, Lester has served as a senior fellow for Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation, where he worked on issues related to minorities in science and engineering.

He received the IBM Corporation Outstanding Contribution Award in 1974, the Percy L. Julian Award in Pure or Applied Research in 1979, and the Outstanding Teacher Award in 1986 by the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. The President's Committee on the National Medal of Science selects the winners of the National Medal of Science, honoring outstanding contributions to science and engineering. Lester will be sworn in Nov. 13; his term expires December 31, 2002.