Tim Berners-Lee, senior research scientist in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence lab was honored along with four other renowned achievers for lifetime achievement. The inventor of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee received the 2005 Common Wealth Award for Mass Communications at an April 23 gala in Delaware along with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who received the award for government; playwright David Mamet, honored for dramatic arts; novelist Amy Tan, honored for literature; and Kip Thorne, researcher of black holes, who was honored for science and invention. The honorees each received a share of $250,000 in prize money from the Common Wealth Trust.
Michael Stonebraker, adjunct professor of electrical engineering and computer science, has been chosen to receive the 2005 IEEE John von Neumann Medal "for contributions to the design, implementation and commercialization of relational and object-relational database systems." The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers will present the award at a ceremony in Virginia on June 18. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.
Ann Graybiel, a principal investigator at the McGovern Institute and Walter A. Rosenblith Professor for Neuroscience at MIT, is receiving the 2005 Ibsen Neuronal Plasticity prize for "outstanding work...in the domain of Motivation and Associative Learning." Awarded by the French Fondation IPSEN pour la Recherch̩ Therapeutique, the prize recognizes researchers who shed light on the brain's plasticity, which refers to its physical remodeling in response to experiences, learning, and behavior. Graybiel will share the 40,000 euro prize (approximately $50,500) with Trevor Robbins and Wolfram Schultz, both at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 18, 2005 (download PDF).
