HONORS & Other Things

 

 Wolf Foundation Award: Dr. Davis

Dr. Raymond Davis, Jr., research professor of astronomy, has been awarded the Wolf Foundation prize in Physics for 2000. The $100,000 prize, will be awarded by Ezer Weizman, the president of Israel, in May at a special ceremony in the Knesset. Dr. Davis received the award along with Masatoshi Koshibe of the University of Tokyo for their pioneering observations of astronomical phenomena by detection of neutrinos, which was instrumental in creating the emerging field of neutrino astronomy.


MLK Awards

The 2000 Martin Luther King Community Service Awards were presented on January 20 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Interfaith Program to honor five individuals for their commitment to King's legacy through their community service. The awardees represented all facets of the Penn community: faculty, staff, students and West Philadelphia community members.

 Dr. Ira Harkavy, Associate Vice President, director of the Center for Community Partnerships and Professor of Urban Studies received the Faculty Award for bringing Academic Based Service Learning into reality. The Center for Community Partnerships, which Dr. Harkavy founded, has encouraged numerous faculty and students to participate in the educational programs in West Philadelphia's public schools.  

Sergeant Jon Wylie of the Penn Police received the Employee Award for his work in the West Philadelphia community. For five years, he has served as a Rape Agression Defense instructor at Penn, as well as in Abington and Cheltenham. He is the president of the African American Police Officers Association, and has helped to develop Penn's Police Summer Athletic Program. He also coaches in a Mt. Airy baseball league, teaches martial arts to children and is a member of the Penn VIPS Mentoring Program.

The Student Award was presented to Charles "Chaz" Howard, C '00 and former president of the United Minorities Council. He worked to bridge the gap of communication between diverse groups at Penn through discussion on race equality and the need to value diversity. He was also a driving force to push the UMC to reach out to the larger community.

Community Awards were presented to Brenda Cooper-Cutts and K. Rose Samuel-Evans. Mrs. Cooper-Cutts has been an advocate for the homeless in University City, West Philadelphia and South Philadelphia for decades. Ms. Samuel-Evans serves as a youth advocate and community outreach minister, and is also an organizer for the Stop the Violence campaign.


 

Dr. Mitchell: TIAA-CREF Award

The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor of Insurance Risk Management and the Executive Director of Pension Research Council, Dr. Olivia Mitchell, was given the 1999 Paul A. Samuelson Award.

Dr. Mitchell received the award from the TIAA-CREF Institute along with John Geanokoplos of Yale and Stephen P. Zeldes of Columbia for their work entitled "Social Security Money's Worth". The award recognizes outstanding scholarly contributions to lifelong financial security and carries a $20,000 cash prize. The award-winning submission was first published in Prospects for Social Security Reform (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999).


 Consortium Chair: Dr. Schoenberg

Dr. Robert Schoenberg, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, has been appointed as chair of the National Consortium of Directors of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resources in Higher Education. He will hold the position through November 2001. Dr. Schoenberg received his MSW and DSW from the University. He is also a member of the American College Personnel Association, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the National Association of Social Workers.

The consortium's projects and general programming are shaped by three main goals: provide support and mentoring to colleagues doing LGBT related work; to provide consultation to higher education administrators aimed at improving campus climate and services; and to advocate for institutional policy changes and program development which recognize the needs of LGBT people.

 


Middle East Librarians Association

Roberta L. Dougherty, Van Pelt Library's Middle East Bibliographer and Head of Middle East Information Processing at the library, was elected president of the Middle East Librarians Association at the group's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in November.


National Humanities Fellow

Dr. Carol A. Muller, assistant professor of music, has been appointed a fellow for the National Humanities Center for the academic year 1999-2000. Dr. Muller will study at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, NC.


Internet Scout Project

The Morris Arboretum's Botany Department website has received the designation as among "the best resources on the Internet" from the Internet Scout Project. The website was created by botany research assistant Lynn Heilman. Visit the website at www.upenn.edu/paflora.


Almanac, Vol. 46, No. 18, January 25, 2000

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