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Awards and Honors

Esther Duflo
Caption:
Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo (Ph.D. 1995), the Castle Krob Associate Professor of Economics, has been awarded the Elaine Bennett Prize by the American Economics Association's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Duflo specializes in development economics, focusing on how women impact the economies of the countries in which they live. She has studied household behavior, educational choice and returns to education, policy evaluation, decentralization, industrial organization in developing countries, and credit constraints. The Bennett prize was established in 1999 to recognize and honor outstanding research in any field of economics by a woman at the beginning of her career.


Stephen D. Senturia, the Barton L. Weller Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Gregory N. Stephanopoulos, the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Senturia (Ph.D. 1966) was cited for "contributions to and leadership in research on microelectromechanical systems." Stephanopoulos, who also holds an appointment as Taplin Professor of Health Science and Technology, was cited for "pioneering contributions in defining and advancing metabolic engineering and for leadership in incorporating biology into chemical engineering research and education."

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice" and those who have demonstrated accomplishment in "the pioneering of new fields of engineering, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education." The MIT professors were among 77 new members announced Feb. 14.


Edward Baron Turk, professor of French and film studies, was awarded the French Film Critics Association Prize for Best Book by a Foreign Author, honoring the new French edition of his book "Child of Paradise: Marcel Carn� and the Golden Age of French Cinema," which also won a prize from the Theatre Library Association when it first appeared in English. Turk's other books include "Baroque Fiction-making" and "Hollywood Diva: A Biography of Jeanette MacDonald," which was a finalist for the Kurt Weill Foundation Prize for the best book on a subject dealing with musical theater history.


Citing the MIT OpenCourseWare project for its innovation in utilizing the web for education and archiving of information, the Kyoto (Japan) Digital Archives Project gave MIT a Kyoto Digital Archives Award. Professor Shigeru Miyagawa of foreign languages and literatures accepted the award on behalf of MIT in a ceremony at the Kyoto International Community House.

"OpenCourseWare is definitely the epoch-making trial of digital archives in the field of the academy and also education," said Makoto Suganuma of the Kyoto Digital Archives Research Center. The educational materials for 50 MIT subjects from 23 academic disciplines and all five of MIT schools are currently published on the MIT OCW web site at http://ocw.mit.edu. MIT OCW is preparing to publish several hundred more courses in September.


Professor Wai K. Cheng of mechanical engineering has been named a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers, an honor for members that recognizes outstanding engineering creativity and leadership. Cheng's research is on spark ignition engines and diesel engines.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 5, 2003.

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