NewsMakers

Three Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Last week, three faculty members received one of the highest honors accorded to a U.S. scientist -- election to the National Academy of Sciences. They are Robert Kirshner and James Moran, professors of astronomy, and Jack Szostak, professor of genetics at the Medical School. The Academy, a private organization that often advises the federal government, is dedicated to the advancement of science and its use for the general welfare.

Silverman Receives Grant for Tumor Study

The Radiological Society of North America has awarded its 1998 RSNA Seed Cycle 1 grant to Stuart G. Silverman, associate professor of radiology, to study "Percutaneous Cryoblation of Metastatic Liver Disease." Using a new MR-compatible catheter-like probe, he will test the ability of MRI to identify the tumor, target the lesion, deposit the ablative agent in all portions of the tumor, and delineate the changes as they are induced by the treatment.

Silverman joined the faculty in 1989. He is director of Abdominal Imaging, acting director of Computer Tomography, and director of the Cross-Sectional Interventional Service.

Sandel To Deliver Tanner Lectures at Oxford

Michael Sandel, professor of government, will deliver the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Oxford University, May 11-13. The title of his lecture series is "What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets." The Tanner Lectures, awarded annually at Oxford, Cambridge, and several American universities (including Harvard), invite leading figures from philosophy, the humanities, the sciences, and the creative arts, to reflect upon scholarly and scientific learning relating to human values.

Spencer Dissertation Fellows Named

Several graduate students have been named Spencer Foundation for Research Related to Education Dissertation Fellows.

The fellowships, awarded by the Chicago-based foundation, are designed to encourage scholars from a variety of fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education.

The winners, their departments, and dissertation titles are: Judith Ann Li, Economics, "Examining the Effects of Federal Financial Aid on College Tuitions: A Study of Pell Grants"; Stephen Morgan, Sociology, "Educational Attainment and the Bayesian Dynamics of Expectation Formation"; and Abigail Schweber, History, "The Establishment of the Modern Japanese Compulsory Education System."