Eighteen scholars named
Terman Fellows
Eighteen scholars have
been named the 1999-2000 Frederick E. Terman Fellows. The
awards, given to promising young faculty in the sciences
and engineering, are made in the School of Engineering,
the School of Humanities and Sciences, the School of
Medicine and, for the first time this year, the School of
Earth Sciences.
The program was
established in 1994 with a $25 million gift from William
R. Hewlett and the late David Packard. Each recipient
receives a maximum of $100,000 annually for three years.
This year's recipients bring the total number of fellows
across the university to 52.
Related
Information:
Following is a list of
this year's recipients and their research interests:
Kevin Arrigo is an
assistant professor in geophysics. His research is aimed
at understanding a fundamental element of the
biogeochemistry of the Earth: How growth of algae and
microbes convert carbon dioxide, dissolved in seawater,
into organic matter. The rate at which conversion takes
place is important to the current debate about carbon
cycling on a planetary scale and its relation to global
climate change.
Dan Boneh conducts
research on computer security, an area that has become
critically important as electronic commerce has
increased. Boneh is on the faculty of the computer
science department.
Sarah Church joined
the physics department in January 1999 as an assistant
professor. Church is an experimental astrophysicist whose
research focuses on measurements of cosmic microwave
background radiation. The measurement and interpretation
of the properties of this radiation can provide important
information about the early stages of the universe's
evolution and other information relevant to the testing
of competing cosmological models.
Justin DuBois joined
the chemistry department as an assistant professor this
fall. His research is broadly based in chemical
synthesis. DuBois is interested in the design and
preparation of novel transition metal reagents and
catalysts that will effect specific chemical
transformations, including hydrocarbon oxidation,
heteroatom transfer and carbon-carbon bond formation.
Scott Fendorf,
assistant professor in geological and environmental
sciences, focuses on the transport of trace elements
through soils. He also studies the chemistry of the
interactions of inorganic contaminants with water and
mineral surfaces. Knowledge of the movement of inorganic
contaminants through soils is a fundamental part of
understanding, and subsequently mitigating, the impact of
contaminants on plants and animals.
Christopher Garcia joined
the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as an
assistant professor in May 1999. His research focuses on
the structural and functional basis of receptor/ligand
interactions in systems that are relevant to human health
and disease.
Andrea Goldsmith is
an assistant professor of electrical engineering. Her
research is in the broad area of wireless communications.
Specifically, Goldsmith focuses on communication theory,
which bridges experimental information theory and
practically motivated work.
Giorgio Gratta has
been an associate professor of physics since September
1995. Gratta's research is a series of experiments
intended to better understand intrinsic properties of
neutrinos. In particular, he is interested in answering
the question of whether neutrinos have a nonzero mass.
Not only are such studies relevant for a deeper
understanding of particle physics, but they also can have
great impact on astrophysics and cosmology.
Laura Lowes is an
assistant professor of civil and environmental
engineering. Her research is in the broad area of
structural engineering and, specifically, in the
development of analytical/computational tools for
structural engineering within the performance-based
model.
Liqun Luo joined
the biological sciences faculty in the fall 1996. Luo, a
developmental biologist working with complex organisms,
has developed a method to induce mutations in specific
cells and also induce a label in the same cells so they
can be visualized. He plans to conduct an unbiased
genetic screen using this new method to identify genes
that regulate different aspects of neuronal
morphogenesis, including neuronal precursor
proliferation, the elaboration of dendrites and guidance
of axons.
Christopher Manning joined
the departments of linguistics and computer science as an
assistant professor this fall. Manning is an expert in
computational linguistics. His research concentrates on
natural language processing, combining increasingly
complex linguistic theory with sophisticated statistical
models.
Charles Menun is an
assistant professor of civil and environmental
engineering. His research is in the broad area of safety
and reliability assessment in structural engineering.
Menun has interests in both theory and application in
structural reliability. He develops probabilistic methods
for reliability assessments and also designs applications
of civil engineering risk analysis and decision theory.
Eduardo Miranda,
assistant professor of civil and environmental
engineering, conducts research in the new area of
engineering/construction integration, which involves
research on modeling, design, construction and simulation
of facility engineering products and processes. Miranda's
particular expertise is earthquake engineering.
Anthony Oro joined
the dermatology faculty in 1998. Dr. Oro's research
interests include the molecular genetics of skin
development with special interest in hair growth and
basal cell carcinoma formation. His clinical
concentration is in cutaneous malignancies.
Adina Paytan is an
assistant professor in geological and environmental
sciences. Her research focuses on ocean geochemistry, and
she is demonstrating that the mineral barite could be
used to track ratios of various radioactive isotopes back
through time. Those ratios, and the amounts of barite
deposited in sediments, give important information about
the history of the ocean environment and the levels of
biological activity in the ocean. With these tools,
important questions about the history of the effects of
climate variation on the ocean can be investigated.
Arend Sidow joined
the faculties of the Department of Pathology and the
Department of Genetics in 1998. She studies the genes
that regulate embryonic and postnatal development in
primitive and complex organisms.
Olav Solgaard is an
assistant professor of electrical engineering. His
research is in the area of semiconductor fabrication
techniques and, specifically, in microfabrication and
integration of optical devices and systems.
Ulrich Thonemann is
an assistant professor of industrial engineering and
engineering management. His research focuses on the
application of analytical and quantitative techniques to
manufacturing systems modeling, supply chain modeling,
product design and management information systems. Recent
projects include the development of models to design
automated shop floor material handling networks, analysis
of the appropriate level of component commonality in the
design of products, and a study of the impact of
information technology on global supply chains. SR
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