Technology Review has done it again. It was selected from some 200 entries for the Folio 1995 editorial excellence award in science and technology. The magazine was cited for overall editorial quality and for presenting the human and social dimensions of technology. The judges said: "It's a friendly, well-organized guide through the world of science. Interviews, reviews and other departmental fodder are refreshingly free of hype."
Elias P. Gyftopoulos, Ford Professor of Engineering with appointments in the Departments of Mechanical and the Department of Nuclear Engineering, has been selected as this year's winner of the James Harry Potter Gold Medal by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His award cited him "for advancing the theory of thermodynamics to a new level, while clarifying basic concepts that had been generally misunderstood and while unifying the subject with quantum mechanics, and for the application of the science of thermodynamics in mechanical engineering, to industrial energy conversion, to energy policy, and to specific new technologies." The award, established in 1980, recognizes contributions involving the teaching, appreciation or utilization of thermodynamic principles in research, development and design in mechanical engineering.
Evelyn Fox Keller, professor in the Program in Science, Technology and Society and director of Women's Studies, gave one of two keynote talks at the recent conference on Women, Gender, Science conference at the University of Minnesota. Her talk, "Can Developmental Biology be Seen as a Feminist Cause?" focused on the work of developmental geneticist Christianne Nusslein-Volhard. The conference brought together historians of women and science and those who research current science and gender topics to discuss the relationship of their studies with the goal of bringing to light the gender issues of women's participation in science. "The conference was a historic event," Professor Keller said, "an international meeting that brought together work over the last decade, demonstrating the high quality of scholarship this subject has now attained."
Japan's prestigious Iichiko Prize for Cultural Study will be given to Attilio Petruccioli, Aga Khan Professor and acting director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, for his book Fathpur Sikri (1988). The award includes a cash prize and an invitation to lead a series of seminars at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Culturelles in Japan. The annual prize was established to foster advanced and interdisciplinary research in the field of cultural and social practices.
The Massachusetts Association for Women in Education presented this year's Mary E. Tobin Award to Marie Cedrone, contract administrator in the Office of Sponsored Programs. The award recognizes Ms. Cedrone's "distinguished leadership in the field of higher education and her generous contribution of time and energy to assist other women in professional advancement."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on August 16, 1995.
