Lorlene Hoyt, assistant professor of urban studies and planning, is the winner of this year's Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement given by the New England Resource Center for Higher Education.
Hoyt studies and teaches on urban revitalization strategies, business improvement districts, and planning education. She is the project director of MIT@Lawrence, a university-community partnership focused on affordable housing, community asset-building and youth pathways to education and careers.
The single Lynton Award recipient from a pool of 72 nominations from across the country, Hoyt has been invited to present her work at the annual conference of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities to be held Oct. 21 in Baltimore.
Assistant Professor Tanja Bosak is the recipient of the 2007 Geological Society of America Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science Award, to be presented Oct. 27 in Denver. Bosak, new to MIT this fall, uses laboratory models to examine microbial biosignatures in carbonate rocks. Her approach to interpreting signs of life in ancient rocks includes developing a laboratory system that mimics the chemistry of the Precambrian ocean.
MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and graduate student Vanda Felbab-Brown recently received awards from the American Political Science Association. Acemoglu was honored for his co-authorship of the book "Economic Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship" and as co-author of the article "Economic Backwardness in Political Perspective." Felbab-Brown's "Shooting Up: The Impact of Illicit Economies on Military Conflict" won best doctoral dissertation in the field of policy studies.
The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching has presented its 2007 Editors' Choice award in physics to Professor John Belcher for Physics 8.02: Faraday's Law. The freshman course subject is taught collaboratively and interactively, including use of 3-D animations and visualizations, employing MIT's Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) teaching format. TEAL personnel involved include Andrew McKinney, Philip Bailey, Pierre Poignant, Ying Cao, Ralph Rabat, Michael Danziger, Mark Bessette, Andreas Sundquist and Mesrob Ohannessian.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 19, 2007 (download PDF).
