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Awards & Honors

Zatlin
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Zatlin

Elias Gyftopolous, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering, will receive the Edward F. Obert award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for his papers, "Entropy, Part I: Statistics and Its Misleading Disorder" and "Entropy, Part II: Thermodynamics and Perfect Order." Gyftopolous, an MIT faculty member since 1955, specializes in nuclear power plant dynamics, the advancement of thermionic energy conversion in space and cost-effective energy use in industrial processes.

Jonathan Zatlin, a new assistant professor of history, has received the Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize for his dissertation, "The Currency of Socialism: Money in the GDR and German Unification, 1971-1990." The prize is awarded annually by the German Historical Association to the two best doctoral dissertations in German history, German-American relations or the history of Germans in North America.

"We are delighted that Jonathan Zatlin has received this well-deserved recognition for his research," said Professor Harriet Ritvo, head of the history section. "His dissertation deals with a timely and challenging topic. He has already made significant contributions as a member of the history faculty. In addition to his focus on German history, he brings a broad familiarity with modern Europe to the history curriculum." Zatlin obtained the B.A. in English literature in 1985 from Yale University, the M.Phil. in European history from the University of Oxford in 1990, and the Ph.D. in modern European history in 2000 from the University of California at Berkeley. He also spent two years as a foreign correspondent for the French news agency Agence France-Presse/Extel reporting on German economic and political affairs.

Ten MIT students have been chosen to receive $25,000 Siebel Scholarships from Siebel Systems. The company selects students in graduate schools of business and computer science based on academic merit and leadership in their first year of graduate studies. MIT recipients in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are Omar Aftab, Luciano Castagnola, Jolie Chang, Eko Lisuwandi and Edward Tolson. Recipients in the Sloan School of Management are Jennifer Bratton, Andrea Carter, Mark Giordano, Emanuele Picciola and Paul Strasma.

Yinan He, a graduate student in political science, has been named a 2001-02 Peace Scholar in the annual competition sponsored by the Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program of the US Institute of Peace. She will receive a $17,000 fellowship for research on her doctoral dissertation, "Overcoming Shadows of the Past: Historical Trauma and Reconciliation in Europe and East Asia." Named in honor of former Sen. Jennings Randolph of West Virginia, the Peace Scholar program furthers the Institute's congressional mandate to support research, education and training about peace and conflict in the international arena. For more information, go here.

Professor Ronald R. Parker of electrical engineering and computer science received the 2001 Leadership Award from the Fusion Power Associates, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing fusion research and realizing practical fusion power. Parker is former director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and former leader of the ITER co-center in Garching, Germany. He was recognized "for his many scientific contributions to fusion research, his dedication to the production of high-performance fusion conditions in the laboratory and his leadership and vision to the cause of developing practical fusion power."

Assistant Professor Rahul Sarpeshkar of electrical engineering and computer science has een awarded a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. He was one of 24 Fellows to receive a $625,000 award over five years.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 24, 2001.

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