Newsmakers

Cheryl Knott named an inaugural Emerging Explorer

The National Geographic Society recently selected associate professor of anthropology Cheryl Knott to its Emerging Explorers Program. The new program recognizes and supports adventurers and scientists who make significant contributions to world knowledge through exploration. Emerging Explorers receive $10,000 to assist with research and exploration.

Knott was selected for her research on orangutan behavior, biology, and human evolutionary history. Her study of orangutans in Borneo has shown that this highly endangered primate has distinct cultural behavior traits that link closely to those of humans.

Liu named among ‘Brilliant 10’

Popular Science magazine recently named Harvard researcher David R. Liu to its third annual “Brilliant 10” list, which honors “extraordinary thinkers” who are virtually unknown to the general public.

The John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences, Liu was selected for his work in developing a brand-new way to create man-made chemical molecules. By relying on the natural tendency of DNA strands to pair together like a zipper, Liu is able to program the outcome of chemical reactions. The process allows chemists to produce known molecules with greater control, and could later be used to search for new medicines.

The full article appears in the October issue of Popular Science.

Ph.D candidate awarded doctoral dissertation fellowship

Philosophy Ph.D. candidate Martin O’Neill received a 2004 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship this summer from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The grant, which includes a stipend of $17,500 for one year, will support O’Neill’s proposed dissertation titled “Freedom, Fairness and Responsibility: From Agency to Egalitarianism.”

This year, the foundation will support 28 dissertations addressing religious and ethical issues.

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks