NYU faculty members have received honors and awards from within the University and at the national and international levels.
2002-2003
NYU received a $1.7 million four year award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Program to strengthen the undergraduate biology curriculum by introducing genomics and bioinformatics into all levels including courses for majors, general education science courses for non-science majors, and supervised summer research. NYU was one of 44 institutions selected for funding from a field of 173 proposals. This is a very significant award that reflects NYU's visibility and reputation within the education and science community. The award provides funds for curriculum development, summer research apprenticeships for NYU and non-NYU students, training of pre- and post-doctoral fellows with interest in teaching, outreach into high school science education, start-up support for a new faculty appointment in genomics/bioinformatics, and renovation and equipment for two teaching laboratories. The program is based in the Biology Department and will also include faculty from the other life science departments as well as Computer Science and Mathematics and faculty from the Teaching and Learning Department in the School of Education. This is the third award to NYU from this program - the previous awards, in 1989 and 1994 introduced the summer student research program in the Center for Neural Science, the development of a major course of study in the neural science, and extensive laboratory renovations for neural science and chemistry.
Anthony Amsterdam, School of Law, has been awarded the 2002 Robert J. Kutak Award by the ABA Section on Legal Education, which "is presented annually by the Section to a person who meets the highest standards of professional responsibility and demonstrates substantial achievement toward increased understanding between legal education and the active practice of law." Through his efforts he has furthered not only the Law School, but also the entire field of legal education.
Thomas Bender, History, Faculty of Arts and Science, was appointed Lois and Mel Tukman Fellow in the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library for academic year 2002-2003. Each year fifteen fellows are selected in an international competition; they include academics from a variety of humanities disciplines as well as writers of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Each fellow has an office in the Center, on the second floor of the library, and they meet regularly to discuss their work. It is expected that the fellows will use the remarkable collections of the New York Public Library.
Chris Bregler, Computer Science and Sylvia Serfaty, Mathematical Sciences, both of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, were selected as Alfred P. Sloan Fellows. These awards are intended to provide support and recognition to the best young faculty members in specified fields of science. Currently a total of 112 fellowships are awarded annually in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics. This is an extraordinarily competitive award and conveys a very high regard for past work and future potential.
Red Burns, Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, has been recognized as a "Design Champion" by the Chrysler Design Awards on the occasion of their 10th Anniversary. The Chrysler Design Awards were created in 1993 to honor the vitality design professions in America. Commemorating a decade of Chrysler Design Awards, the Chrysler brand is celebrating the achievements of six individuals who have consistently championed seminal works of architecture and design, and significantly influenced modern American culture. Nearly 200 design champions were nominated by a broad-based committee of individuals within the architectural and design disciplines and then selected by an advisory panel.
Robert Engle, who holds the Michael Armellino Professorship in the Management of Financial Services, Stern School of Business, has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility. Engle shares the prize with Clive W. J. Granger of the University of California at San Diego. Engle is an expert in time series analysis with a long-time interest in the analysis of financial markets. He received the prize for his research on the concept of autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH). He demonstrated that it accurately captures the properties of many time series and developed methods for statistical modeling of time-varying volatility. His ARCH models have become indispensable tools not only for researchers, but also for analysts on financial markets, who use them in asset pricing and in evaluating portfolio risk.
Faye Ginsburg, Anthropology, Director of Center for Media Culture, Angela Zito, Anthropology, Director of Religious Studies program, and Jay Rosen, Chair, Journalism, all of the Faculty of Arts and Science, have been awarded a Pew Charitable Trusts grant of $1.55 million to establish an interdisciplinary Center for Religion and Media at NYU. It will be the ninth center of excellence out of a projected ten in religion at major research universities. The funding is a two-year start up grant with an expected three-year renewal, after which the Center is anticipated to become independent. The goal of the new Center for Religion and Media is to develop and broaden interdisciplinary and cross-cultural scholarship, pedagogy, and public knowledge of religion and media as a global phenomenon with deep local roots. The Center will function simultaneously as a space for scholarly endeavor, as a stage for public educational events, and as an electronic interface with media specialists and the public.
Mikhael Leonidovich Gromov, Mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, will receive the 2002 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences for his revolutionary contributions in the field of geometry. Considered among the world's leading awards for lifetime achievement, the Kyoto Prizes are presented annually by the non-profit Inamori Foundation to people worldwide who have made outstanding contributions to human progress in the categories of "Basic Sciences," "Advanced Technology," and "Arts & Philosophy."
Perry Halkitis, Applied Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Science, received the 2002 Emerging Leader Award from the American Psychological Association's Committee on Psychology and AIDS (COPA). The American Psychological Association's Office on AIDS provides information, training, and technical assistance on a wide range of HIV/AIDS-related topics associated with coping, mental health services, prevention, technology transfer, community collaboration, public policy, and ethics. Professor Halkitis' plaque reads: "For his outstanding research and community service in the areas of treatment adherence for people living with HIV/AIDS and sexual risk behavior among HIV infected and 'at risk' populations."
Jonathan Hay, Chinese Art, Institute of Fine Arts, holds a Guggenheim fellowship this year and was recently appointed to the National Committee for the History of Art. Hay is an unusually young and rare non-western field appointee to this committee.
Susan Hilferty, Design, Tisch School of the Arts, received a 2002 Tony award nomination and a Drama Desk nomination for her costume designs for Into the Woods. In addition, Ms. Hilferty received the 2002 Hewes Design Award (costume), formerly known as the American Theatre Wing Design Award, also for her Into the Woods designs.
Joseph LeDoux, Center for Neural Science, Faculty of Arts and Science, received the 2002 Paul Hoch Award from the American Psychological Association for his work on the neuroscience of fear and its implications for understanding anxiety disorders, such as phobic reactions, posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety. Professor LeDoux also received the 2002 Senior Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) which is "for exceptionally talented and outstanding senior scientists who are well established in their fields and who have demonstrated a sustained, high level of productivity and whose expertise, research accomplishments, and contributions to the field have been and will continue to be critical to the mission of the NIMH." Professor LeDoux's award will allow him to continue his work on emotional memory systems in the brain.
Hisashi Owada, Global Law Faculty, School of Law, was recently elected by the United Nations to serve on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands. Professor Owada is currently President of the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo. Previously, he served as Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations, in addition to holding prominent positions in the Japanese government, including Deputy Minister and Vice Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has taught international law and international organizations at Tokyo University and Harvard Law School. At NYU, Professor Owada taught International Law in Japan and International Legal Problems of East Asia.
Ken Perlin, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, was honored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science in Technology, which "recognizes the important role that members of the scientific community play in the success of New York City." Professor Perlin is also this year's recipient of the Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Award in the Sciences, which honors a member of one of the NYU science departments "who has most clearly demonstrated evidence of past excellence and future prospects of growth in his or her work for the University as teacher, scholar, and colleague."
Charles Peskin, Mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, received the 2003 Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics from the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (AMS-SIAM). Presented every three years, the prize recognizes outstanding contributions to applied mathematics in the highest and broadest sense. Professor Peskin is honored for devoting much of his career to understanding the dynamics of the human heart. Blurring disciplinary boundaries, he has brought an extraordinarily broad range of expertise to bear on this problem: mathematical modeling, differential equations, numerical analysis, high performance computing, fluid dynamics, physiology, neuroscience, physics, and engineering.
Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Faculty of Arts and Science, has been named president of the Modern Language Association (MLA) for 2003. One of the most influential professional scholarly organizations in the world, MLA represents over 30,000 members in more than 100 countries who work to strengthen the study and teaching of language and literature. As president, Pratt hopes to enhance members' dialogue on major issues facing the humanities today, including the crisis in scholarly publishing and the increased importance of foreign language education.
Peter Sarnak, Mathematical Sciences, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, together with Nicholas Katz of Princeton University, received the 2003 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Conant Prize. Presented annually by the AMS, the Conant Prize recognizes an outstanding expository paper published in either the "Notices of the AMS" or the "Bulletin of the AMS" in the preceding five years. Professors Sarnak and Katz are being honored for their expository paper "Zeroes of zeta functions and symmetry," (Bulletin of the AMS 36 (1) 1-26 (1999)). The paper, a model of high-level exposition, presents a rich mix of intensive numerical exploration, conjectures, and theorems.
Ellen Schall and Sonia Ospina, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, received a $1.158 million grant from the Ford Foundation for the "Research and Documentation Component of the Leadership for a Changing World Program," 9/1/02-12/31/03, for the implementation of the project following an approximately 18 month planning process. Leadership for a Changing World (L.C.W.), launched in September 2000, is a program of the Ford Foundation in partnership with the Advocacy Institute in Washington, D.C. and the Wagner School. The program seeks to raise awareness that leadership comes in many forms and from diverse communities by recognizing the achievements of outstanding leaders who are not broadly known beyond their immediate communities or fields. The Wagner School is the research and documentation partner for the L.C.W., and Professors Sonia Ospina and Ellen Schall are co-principal investigators. The research and documentation team will work closely with the L.C.W. awardees to understand their histories, challenges, and approaches and to redirect attention to the communities of practice in which leadership takes place. By working with awardees to document their leadership stories - in conjunction with research partners around the country - the research and documentation team hopes to advance both scholarly and practitioner understandings of emerging models of leadership.
Robert Storr, the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art, Institute of Fine Arts, has been awarded first prize from the Art Critics Association of America in the competition for best monographic exhibition in New York City for 2002. The show was Professor Storr's landmark Gerhard Richter retrospective at MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago, and SanFrancisco, soon to open in its last venue at the Hirshorn Museum, Washington, D.C. This is the Oscar of exhibition prizes.
Stephen Wangh, Experimental Theater Wing, Tisch School of the Arts, received a 2002 Emmy nomination for Best Writer (HBO program). The Laramie Project is a play about the people of Laramie, Wyoming and how they dealt with the aftermath of the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student. The play was written by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project in the words of scores of Laramie residents, whom the Project interviewed. The play was reworked into a film script for HBO. All the writers of the play were nominated for an Emmy, including Moises Kaufman, Andy Paris, and Amanda Gronich, all graduates of ETW, UGD, TSOA, NYU, and Stephen Wangh. The play is now being produced at colleges and high schools all across America.