Six MIT professors are among 116 scientists selected to receive the Sloan Research Fellowship, awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. They are Muhamet Yildiz, assistant professor of economics; Kiran Kedlaya, assistant professor of mathematics; Dina Katabi, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science; Fredo Durand, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science; George Angeletos, assistant professor of economics; and Erik Demaine, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. Each will receive a $45,000 grant over a two-year period to pursue independent research projects.
Rohan Abeyaratne, head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been named president-elect of the American Academy of Mechanics, an organization whose objective is "the advancement of the science and profession of mechanics, and whose scope includes all of the disciplines involved in the modeling and study of the response of inanimate and animate matter to forces and environmental effects."
Robert Edwards, the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology, has been awarded the PICMET Medal for Leadership in Technology Management. The award will be presented at the PICMET (Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology) annual symposium in Istanbul this summer.
Wesley L. Harris, head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was presented with an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Pretoria in South Africa on April 26. Harris was honored for "his contributions as a leader of the civil rights movement and for his scholarship at the highest level."
Patricia Tang, associate professor in the music and theater arts section, has been selected as an American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2006-2007 academic year. This fellowship will give Tang time to devote to writing and researching her next book, "Marketing African Music: Africa Fete and the Globalization of Afro-pop."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 17, 2006 (download PDF).
