Institute Professor Sheila E. Widnall is among 12 women who will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Selection criteria include the enduring value of a nominee's contribution to society and her significant contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, humanities, philanthropy or science.
Karen Perlow, technical assistant in music and theater arts, received an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for Lighting Design for a Small Theater Company. She received the award for both Speakeasy Stage's "Batboy: The Musical" and Lyric Stage's "Dirty Blonde."
Six MIT faculty members are among the 117 recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation this year. The 2003 Sloan Fellows from the Institute are David Autor of economics; Catherine L. Drennan of chemistry; Piotr Indyk and Robert Morris of electrical engineering and computer science; Leonid Mirny of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and Alexander Postnikov of mathematics. Fellows were selected from more than 500 nominees, young scientists nominated "on the basis of their exceptional promise to contribute to the advancement of knowledge." Each will receive a grant of $40,000 for two years. Professors Stephen Lippard of chemistry and Barbara Liskov of electrical engineering and computer science were on the 21-member review committee.
MIT was among the schools with the most Sloan Fellows this year: the University of California had 10, while Caltech and Stanford each had six.
Loren Graham, professor of the history of science in the Program in Science, Technology and Society, has won the Stuart D. and Venice Gross Award for Excellence in Literature, given by Saginaw Valley University. The award recognizes his 1995 book, "A Face in the Rock: The Tale of a Grand Island Chippewa." The book has won the Follo Award of the Michigan Historical Society.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 16, 2003.
