Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems Paul Lagace was named a World Fellow of Composites by the International Committee on Composite Materials. Lagace, who is codirector of the Leaders for Manufacturing and System Design and Management programs as well as a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, was recognized for his technical contribution to composites at an international level and his achievements in advancing the objectives of the organization.
Moungi Bawendi, professor of chemistry and the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy, was awarded one of two Sackler Prizes in the Physical Sciences for 2001. An international prize administered by Tel Aviv University and initiated last year, it recognizes work in physics and chemistry by scientists under 40. Bawendi and his co-winner were cited for "seminal contributions to the discovery, development and fundamental and applied studies of nanoscale materials, and for providing leadership and inspiration to the young generation of chemists working on one of the most challenging scientific endeavors of our times."
Professor David Mindell of the Program in Science, Technology and Society will receive the 2001 Sally Hacker Prize from the Society for the History of Technology for his book "Technology, War and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). The award recognizes the best book in the history of technology accessible to a broad audience.
He also won the organization's Life Members' Prize in Electrical History for his article "Opening Black's Box: Rethinking Feedback's Myth of Origin," which appeared in the July 2000 issue of Technology and Culture. Mindell is the Frances and David Dibner Associate Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow.
Apara R. Dav�, a junior in chemical engineering, has won an inaugural Student Distinguished Performance Award presented by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The award was established to recognize students whose contributions have had a positive impact on the laboratory's programmatic and operational efforts or status in the community. Dav�, who just finished a summer internship in the lab's materials science and technology division, was recognized for applying genetic algorithms to solve a thermal inverse problem and characterize the temporal and spatial characteristics of a welding heat source.
Anna P.M. Michel, a graduate student in ocean engineering, has been awarded a $20,000 Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellowship for 2001-02.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on August 29, 2001.
