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S&T Briefs
Hall of Fame I
Elaine Surick Oran ’66,
senior scientist for reactive flow physics at
the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.,
was inducted into the Women in Technology International
Hall of Fame on June 20. Oran was recognized
by WITI as an engineering pioneer who uses computer
numerical simulations to make fundamental advances
in our understanding of combustion and propulsion,
atmospheric physics, solar physics and astrophysics.
At NRL, she leads a team that has invented and
applied many of the algorithms and computer methodologies
for accurately simulating reactive flows. Oran’s
current work focuses on simulating microfluids
— the dynamics of flows in micro- and nanodevices
— the physics of detonations and supernovae,
and high-performance computing and parallel architectures.
The WITI Hall of Fame was
established in 1996 to recognize and honor women
who make outstanding contributions to science
and technology. With the 2002 inductees, the Hall
of Fame includes 45 distinguished women.
A chemistry and physics
major at Bryn Mawr, Oran went on to earn her master’s
(1968) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees in physics at
Yale University. She has authored more than 300
research publications and is a fellow of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and
the American Physical Society. Oran is a past
recipient of the Arthur S. Fleming Award, the
WISE Award in Science, the Oppenheim Prize and
the Zeldovich Gold Medal of the Combustion Institute.
Hall of Fame II
Julia Ward ’23, Ph.D.
’40 was inducted into the National
Security Agency’s Cryptologic Hall of Honor
at the National Cryptologic Museum in Baltimore
on June 13. NSA’s Hall of Honor was created
in 1999 to "pay special tribute to the pioneers
and heroes who rendered distinguished service
to American cryptology."
Ward was one of six people
honored at the ceremony for outstanding contributions
to American codebreaking during World War II and
the years immediately following it. The College
received a copy of the plaque commemorating the
achievements of Ward, "who set reporting
standards and used early information-management
techniques to support cryptology."
Ward began working for the
College in 1923 and held a variety of deanships;
she earned her Ph.D. in history in 1940. She joined
the Signal Security Agency, the U.S. Army’s
cryptologic organization, in 1942, as a librarian
in the agency’s reference section. By 1945
Ward was chief of the reference section. According
to the statement prepared by the museum, Ward
transformed the section from a poorly organized
unit of limited scope into a "highly respected
organization to which other federal agencies came
for information." She was one of the highest-ranking
female officers of the NSA until her death in
1962.
Institute Director
Judith H. Greenberg , Ph.D.
’72, became
acting director of the National Institute of
General Medical Sciences, Bethesda, Md., on
May 3. She previously directed the NIGMS Division
of Genetics and Developmental Biology, with a
budget of $428 million in fiscal year 2001.
NIGMS is one of the National
Institutes of Health, the principal biomedical
research agency of the federal government, and
has a budget of $1.5 billion. It supports research
and research training in the basic biomedical
sciences with the goal of increasing our understanding
of fundamental life processes to help lay the
foundation for advances in disease diagnosis,
treatment and prevention.
"NIGMS
has recently embarked on a number of exciting
new initiatives, including structural genomics,
pharmacogenetics, integrative and collaborative
approaches to research, and complex biological
systems," Greenberg said. "I am committed
to seeing these and our other activities continue
to flourish, and I am fortunate to have the help
of the institute’s talented and exceptional
staff."
Greenberg is a member of the
American Society of Human Genetics and the Society
for Developmental Biology. Her career and research
were profiled in the
January 2002 issue of Bryn Mawr S&T.
Scientist Named Provost
Ralph Kuncl
joined Bryn Mawr as provost on June 1. He previously
was vice provost for undergraduate education at
Johns Hopkins University, and professor of neurology
and pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,
where he specialized in neuromuscular disease,
including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and myasthenia
gravis. Kuncl received the 2002 Distinguished
Service Medal from the University of Chicago,
where he earned his Ph.D. (1975) and M.D. (1977)
degrees, for his seminal discoveries on the role
of glutamate in ALS and the development of experimental
drugs for ALS.
During the 2000-01 academic
year, Kuncl was an American Council on Education
fellow at Bryn Mawr, where he completed a study
on the success of women’s colleges in producing
future Ph.D. scientists, mathematicians and engineers.
He also assisted Nancy J. Vickers, president of
the College, on Bryn Mawr’s Plan for a
New Century.
"Dr. Kuncl has an
impressive academic background and a distinguished
record of accomplishments," Vickers says.
"He understands the importance of interdisciplinary
collaboration and opportunities for faculty renewal
in sustaining the intellectual life of a college
community like ours. He will bring a fresh perspective
to the role of chief academic officer."
EDGE Expands
Rhonda J. Hughes, Helen
Herrmann Professor of Mathematics, received a
$187,000 ADVANCE Leadership Award from the National
Science Foundation to expand EDGE —
Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education.
Hughes launched EDGE in 1998 with Sylvia T. Bozeman
of Spelman College to help women succeed in graduate-school
mathematics programs through a variety of mentorship
and academic support initiatives. The new award
will continue the work of Bryn Mawr College to
promote the next generation of women in the mathematical
sciences by building on Hughes’ success in
developing and implementing effective strategies
to achieve this goal.
"We will use the ADVANCE
Leadership Award to identify ways to advance women
graduate students inmathematics
into leadership positions in science, engineering
and mathematics," Hughes says. "We will
help them connect to a network of more senior
women who can give them critical information and
support as they start a career."
The EDGE expansion plan
includes four components: a publication program
to broadly disseminate information about successful
strategies for increasing the retention of women
in graduate mathematics programs; a capacity-building
initiative that will establish a three-tiered
mentoring program; a 2003 symposium to provide
a forum and workshops on successful institutional
and individual paradigms for retention and advancement
of women in mathematics; and support for Hughes’
research on functional analysis and operator theory,
with increased involvement of undergraduate and
graduate students in her research.
For more information,
visit the EDGE program Web site at http://www.brynmawr.edu
/Acads/Math/edge/edge.html and see the April
2001 issue of Bryn Mawr S&T.
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