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S&T Briefs
Pioneering Researcher
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Hollis Cline '77 |
Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, named Hollis Cline '77 one of 13 new recipients of the NIH Director's Pioneer Award on Sept. 29, 2005. "The scientists we recognize with Pioneer Awards," Zerhouni says, "have far-ranging ideas that hold the potential to make truly extraordinary contributions to many fields of medical research."
The award supports the research of exceptionally creative scientists who take innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical research. The award is intended to give recipients the intellectual freedom to pursue groundbreaking new research with high potential impact that, due to their novelty, also have inherently high risks of failure. The five-year awards provide recipients with $2.5 million in direct costs for research.
The Charles and Marie Robertson Professor and Director of Research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, Cline will use the Pioneer Award to pursue a large-scale project to understand the architecture, development and plasticity of brain circuits, according to CSHL. Her project is titled "A Novel Method for in vivo Identification of Neuronal Connectivity Using a Transcellular Catalytic Cascade."
Using time-lapse imaging, electrophysiology and molecular genetic techniques, Cline has developed experimental systems to assess cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neural plasticity in response to visual stimulation. As reported in the October 2004 issue of Bryn Mawr S&T, a potential outgrowth of these studies is the identification of genes and proteins required for enhanced neuronal activity. This could have relevance for medical disorders such as mental retardation, including fragile X syndrome, learning disabilities and cognitive deficits.
Thinking Big (and Light) II
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Elizabeth McCormack |
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), which supports "researchers creating paradigm-changing concepts," selected a novel project of Professor of Physics Elizabeth McCormack for additional Phase 2 funding on Oct. 12, 2005. Working with an international team of physicists and astronomers led by McCormack, the project involves exploring the feasibility of creating very large, ultra-lightweight laser-trapped mirrors (LTMs) in space.
The LTM concept, first proposed in 1979, is closer to becoming a practical reality due to recent progress in laser technologies and new capabilities for trapping atoms and particles. As reported in the October 2002 issue of S&T, building an LTM involves emitting laser beams in opposite directions, which strike two deflectors. The reflected light produces a series of parabolic fringe surfaces. Dielectric particles in space are attracted to bright fringes and metallic particles to dark fringes. The particles can be swept to the central fringe by tuning the laser wavelength, thereby creating a reflective surface in the shape of a mirror. An LTM as large as 35 meters would have a mass of just 100 grams and be only a few microns thick, making it an ideal candidate for operation in space, free of the optical distortions created by Earth's atmosphere.
NIAC sponsors research in two phases. Proposals selected for Phase 1 awards typically receive up to $75,000 for a six-month study that validates the viability of the concept and identifies challenges that must be overcome to make the proposal a reality. The results of the Phase 1 studies are evaluated, and the most promising are selected for further research into the major feasibility issues associated with cost, performance, development time and technology through a Phase 2 award. Phase 2 studies can be up to two years long and receive as much as $400,000.
"These awards will encourage NIAC Fellows to continue the development of their concepts that may have a revolutionary impact on future missions for the exploration of space," says NIAC Director Robert Cassanova of the Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Md. "These concepts may not only directly impact future missions, but will inspire other creative members of the technical community to leap vast intellectual distances to set a new course for others to follow."
National Nanotech Center
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Barbara Herr Harthorn '73 |
On Oct. 6, 2005, Barbara Herr Harthorn '73 was named co-director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a new National Science and Engineering Center established by the National Science Foundation. The NSF will provide $5 million to support the first five years of CNS-UCSB operations.
The center is intended to help scientists, scholars, policy-makers and the public better understand the societal implications of nanotechnology — its potential opportunities and perceived risks. The center will also foster interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty members and students in science and engineering, the social sciences and the humanities.
Nanotechnology involves research and development at ultra-small scales of 1 to 100 nanometers — a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Nanotech structures and devices have unique properties and applications because of their small size. Applications range from new electronic devices to new materials for health and environmental uses.
Harthorn is an assistant research anthropologist, director of social science research development, and associate director of the Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research at UCSB. Her research focuses on the social production of health inequality by examining the intersections of gender, ethnicity and race, and transnational migration in health and human-risk perception. A past member of the executive committee of the NSF Center for Spatially Integrated Social Sciences, Harthorn leads an international network on health-risk perception and spatial analysis.
Excellence in Teaching
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Claire Ross Cronmiller '74 |
Claire Ross Cronmiller '74 received the 2005-06 Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher Award from the Society for College Science Teachers. The national award, co-sponsored by the Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company, recognizes educators who demonstrate excellence in their teaching philosophy and effectiveness, teaching innovations, and course and curricula development. Cronmiller received the award at the 53rd annual convention of the National Science Teachers Association, Dallas, March 31-April 3, 2005. She will deliver the Marjorie Gardner Lecture at the NSTA annual meeting in Anaheim, April 6-9, 2006.
Cronmiller intended to major in German literature at Bryn Mawr, but she switched to biology after being inspired by her professors to pursue a career in science research. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Cancer Research (now the Fox Chase Cancer Center) in Philadelphia. Cronmiller earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in biology and genetics at Princeton University, where she also did postdoctoral research in molecular biology.
Cronmiller joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1990, where she is the Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professor in biology. Her research lab studies how complex sequences of differentiation are genetically regulated during development, using oogenesis in the fruit fly, Drosphila, as a model system. In large-enrollment lecture classes with more than 300 undergraduate students, Cronmiller is noted for her creative and innovative techniques to make complex genetic phenomena more accessible, including student skits, rap songs and parable-stories. At the end of the semester, she invites students to brunch at her home. Cronmiller's personalized approach to teaching is expressed in her motto, "They won't care what we know until they know that we care."
Cronmiller has received numerous teaching and service awards at the University of Virginia, including the Biology Department Distinguished Teaching Award, the Mead Endowment Honored Faculty Award, and the Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award for mentoring women in science — students, teaching fellows and faculty members.
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