Earll M. Murman, professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Engineering Systems Division, has been elected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences as a Foreign Member of the Academy. This honor recognizes Murman's many years of work in systems engineering, product development, aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics and engineering education. The academy consists of nearly 1,000 distinguished engineers and economists elected to the Academy by their peers. It promotes cross-fertilization among industry, academia and public administration, and is closely affiliated with a number of organizations, most notably, the Nobel Foundation. Murman was head of MIT's aero-astro department from 1990 to 1996. He has also directed MIT's Project Athena and Lean Aerospace Initiative, and is co-author of "Lean Enterprise Value: Insights from MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative," which was awarded the International Astronautical Academy's 2004 Engineering Sciences Book Award.
Det. Sgt. Mary Beth Riley of the MIT Police was recently elected to the Athletic Hall of Fame of her alma mater, St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., for her accomplishments in soccer and ice hockey. The 1985 graduate is the daughter of 1960 Gold Medal Olympic coach Jack Riley, who had a long and highly successful coaching career at the U.S. Military Academy. "M.B. went from stopping goals in soccer to scoring them in hockey, and did it at a prolific rate," said the college in its announcement. Riley is the all-time scoring leader for the college's women's ice hockey program with 78 career goals, 115 career assists and 193 career points. She holds the overall record for goals in a game--five.
President Charles M. Vest received an award from his alma mater at the Oct. 8 Alumni Society Awards Dinner at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Vest, who earned the M.SE. in 1964 and the Ph.D. in 1967 from the university, received the College of Engineering Alumni Society's highest honor, the Alumni Society Medal. "He has devoted a distinguished 37-year career to teaching, research and higher education administration," said the university's Alumni Society.
The American Physical Society has awarded the 2005 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award to the members of its Study Group on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense, including MIT Professor Daniel Kleppner, director of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms and the Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics Emeritus at MIT, and David Moncton, director of MIT's Nuclear Reactor Laboratory and an adjunct professor of physics. The award honors the outstanding accomplishments of physicists who promote the use of physics for the public good in such areas as the environment, arms control and science policy. The APS cited the Study Group, which is co-chaired by Kleppner, for its report "that adds physics insight to the public debate" on national missile defense.
Subra Suresh, head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been selected by the American Society of Materials International to receive the 2004 Albert Sauveur Achievement Award. The award recognizes "pioneering materials science and engineering achievements that have stimulated organized work along similar lines to such an extent that a marked basic advance has been made in the knowledge of materials science and engineering." Suresh, who is the Ford Professor of Engineering and and a professor of biological engineering, is cited for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of deformation behavior at different length scales and mechanics of materials and demonstrated leadership in materials education." He received the award at a banquet on Oct. 19 in Columbus, Ohio, at the annual meeting of ASM International.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 20, 2004 (download PDF).
