The Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) has announced the following awards, which will be presented at the division's graduation ceremonies today.
The Thomas A. McMahon Mentoring Award is presented to the person who, through the warmth of his/her personality, inspires and nurtures HST students in their scientific and personal growth; and, through honest advice and generosity to all students and colleagues, sets an admirable example of excellence in mentoring.
This year's award recipients are Professors Louis D. Braida, the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of HST's speech and hearing sciences doctoral program, and Roger G. Mark, the Distinguished Professor in Health Sciences and Technology and professor of electrical engineering. He also received the Perkins Award for excellence in graduate advising.
Established in 1999, the McMahon award honors the late Thomas McMahon, who received his doctorate from MIT and joined the Harvard faculty in 1971.
The Irving M. London Teaching Award recognizes teaching faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to the training of HST students. Named in honor of HST's first director, the award is given to HST faculty members who display the excellence and dedication to teaching the biomedical sciences curriculum that is central to the goals of the division.
This year's recipients are HST-affiliated faculty Shiv S. Pillai and Valerie J. Pronio-Stelluto. Dr. Pillai, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), was cited for his teaching of HST 175 (Cellular and Molecular Immunology). Dr. Pronio-Stelluto, clinical instructor of medicine at HMS, was recognized for her work in HST's Introduction to Clinical Medicine program and her teaching in HST 201 (Introduction to Clinical Medicine) and HST 202 (Medical Engineering).
HST's 2001 Student Leadership Award was presented earlier this spring to graduate student Thomas Heldt of Stadecken-Elsheim, Germany. The award recognizes students who contribute the most to the personal and professional development of their fellow HST students. Mr. Heldt, a fourth-year student in HST's medical engineering/medical physics program, was cited for his many organizational efforts on behalf of both HST's MD and PhD students.
Zhi-Hong Mao, a graduate student from Hebei Renqiu, China, has received the MIT Zakhartchenko fellowship for developing highly nonconventional theories to analyze and design air traffic control systems and for his work on developing new single- and multi-agent trajectory control systems inspired from neurobiological observations.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 6, 2001.
