Newsmakers

Zhuang named top innovator

Xiaowei Zhuang, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, and of physics, was recently named one of 100 leading young researchers in the world by Technology Review, MIT’s magazine of science and technology. Zhuang was honored for her work in capturing on film a single influenza virus infecting a cell. Using fluorescent molecular tags (affixed to the virus) and lasers, Zhuang became the first person ever to record the stages of this process.

Seasholes awarded book prize

The Center for Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington recently awarded the 2004 Historic Preservation Book Prize to “Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston” (MIT Press, 2003) by Harvard Extension School instructor Nancy S. Seasholes. The prize is awarded annually to the book that has made the most significant contribution to the historic preservation movement in the United States, as determined by a jury of professionals.

A research fellow in the Department of Archaeology at Boston University, Seasholes will be teaching “Boston’s Topographical History” this spring at the Extension School.

Two Harvard researchers named NIH award recipients

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected Professor of Chemistry Sunney Xie and Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology George Daley, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics, as two of its nine recipients for the inaugural NIH Director’s Pioneer Award.

Designed to support individual scientists and thinkers with innovative ideas and approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedical research, the Director’s Pioneer Award was established in January 2004 to encourage “exceptional researchers from multiple disciplines to conduct high-risk, high-impact research related to the improvement of human health.”

First-year HLS student honored

First-year Harvard Law School (HLS) student Alexandra Chirinos was inducted into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s (HSF) Alumni Hall of Fame on Oct. 6 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

A native of Mexico who overcame formidable personal hardships, learned English on her own, and obtained a full scholarship to the University of Texas, Austin (the first noncitizen to do so), Chirinos will receive the Brillante award from HSF for “personifying limitless potential.”

HUAM appoints committee chair

Thomas W. Lentz, the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM), recently announced the appointment of Emily Rauh Pulitzer as the new chair of the Visiting Committee for HUAM. Pulitzer will lead the committee that works closely with the art museums director and reports periodically to University leadership.

A former curator at the Fogg and St. Louis art museums, Pulitzer is a patron of the arts and longtime supporter of HUAM. She has been a trustee at the Museum of Modern Art since 1994, and is the founder and president of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks