Newsmakers

Stanbridge is Architect of Distinction at GSD

Harvard Graduate School of Design student Paul Stanbridge ’00 has received both the Autodesk Architect of Distinction Award and the ALEX Award for Technological Innovations from the National Alliance for Excellence (NAE), a nonprofit foundation that recognizes the “nation’s most gifted young scholars and artists.”

Stanbridge was recognized for outstanding architectural design. He received a $1,000 scholarship with the ALEX Award, and state-of-the-art design software from Autodesk.

The NAE is the only national organization that allows students to compete in academics and the arts solely on the basis of merit, providing both monetary and product awards to competition winners.

Wilson Wins King Faisal Prize

E.O. Wilson, Pelegrino University Research Professor, Mellon Professor of the Sciences and Curator in Entomology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, has won the 2000 King Faisal International Prize in Biology.

“The objectives of the King Faisal International Prize are to reward excellence and to encourage research that benefits mankind. The outstanding contributions made by this year’s winners are sure to have meaningful consequences for many people,” said Prince Khaled Al Faisal, director-general of the King Faisal Foundation, who announced this year’s winners on Feb. 15.

Professor Wilson is being recognized as “one of the most outstanding biologists of the century.” He is renowned for his Pulitzer Prize-winning books On Human Nature and The Ants, a seminal work in the field of sociobiology.

The King Faisal Foundation, the Middle East’s largest philanthropic organization, preserves and promotes Islamic culture, assists needy communities, advances educational opportunities, and encourages research, particularly in the fields of science, medicine, and Islamic studies. It was formed in 1976 by the eight sons of King Faisal to carry on his work and preserve his memory.

The prize, which is one of five awarded in different categories, was jointly awarded to Wilson and Dr. John Craig Venter of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md. Winners will receive their prizes at an official ceremony in Riyadh later this year. Each will receive a certificate summarizing the laureate’s work, a 24-carat, 200-gram gold medal, and a cash award of $200,000. Co-winners in any category will share the monetary grant.