Six leading cancer investigators, including Tyler Jacks, assistant professor in the Department of Biology and the Center for Cancer Research, will be honored at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in April. The AACR recognized scientists "whose research has made significant contributions to the basic understanding of cancer and improvements in clinical care."
Professor Jacks will receive the 18th annual Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award. He was cited for being a "pivotal figure" in the study of p53, a gene that normally keeps cell growth under control but, when mutated, spurs increased cell division leading to tumor growth. He was also instrumental in the discovery that p53 plays a key role in triggering apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
The Rhoads award is presented each year to a scientist under the age of 41 to honor the memory of Dr. Rhoads, a founder and first director of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York. Professor Jacks is also an assistant investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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The Tau Beta Pi Association, an honor society for engineering, has honored Lecturer John A. Tucker of electrical engineering and computer science for his 40 years of service to the organization. Mr. Tucker is director emeritus of the VI-A internship program in EECS and has served on Tau Beta Pi's Advisory Board since joining MIT in 1956.
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Professor Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), and Patrick Field, who earned the SM in city planning in 1994, have won an award for their book, Dealing With an Angry Press.
The book was one of two winners in the Outstanding Book in Alternative Dispute Resolution recognized by the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution in New York, NY. The organization is a nonprofit alliance of 500 corporations and law firms worldwide, established to develop alternatives to the high cost of litigation.
Professor Susskind's work focuses on conflict management and the mediation of multiparty, multi-issue disputes. He was head of DUSP from 1978-82. He has mediated complex disputes involving facility siting, environmental issues and science-intensive policy disputes, as well as disputes within corporations and government agencies.
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Connecticut Governor John Rowland last month presented freshman Nicholas Nash of Weston, CT, with the first Renaissance Award sponsored by the National Alliance for Excellence. The Alliance gives the new award annually to 10 students who have demonstrated accomplishment in academics and the arts. Mr. Nash, who received a $2,000 scholarship, was named the top student in the academic portion of the competition and was also cited for his achievements as a violinist, vocalist and writer. He was Connecticut's 1996 Presidential Scholar, having achieved a perfect 1600 on the SAT, and was highly ranked nationally in the Physics Olympiad.
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The MIT Interfraternity Council (IFC) was recognized as the most outstanding organization in three of eight Programming Excellence Award categories at The Northeast Interfraternity Conference/Northeast Panhellenic Conference (NEIFC/NEPC). More than 35 schools from Virginia to New England were represented.
The awards bestowed on the IFC were the Gary Bonas Leadership and Educational Development Award, the James J. Spenser Risk Reduction and Management Award, and the Rick Funk Council Management Award.
Two MIT students were also recognized for their personal contributions to the fraternity/sorority/ILG and campus community. NEIFC Fraternity Man of the Year was Joseph Lee of Sigma Chi, a senior in chemistry. NEPC Sorority Woman of the Year was Jennifer Yang of Alpha Chi Omega, a senior in biology.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 12, 1997.
