Awards and Honors: June 3, 2009

Crawley to serve on human space flight panel

Ed Crawley, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Engineering Systems Division, has been selected to serve on an independent committee that will review the course of the U.S. human space flight program following the space shuttle's retirement. The panel will present its results in time to support a decision by the Obama administration on NASA's future by August 2009.

MIT Press director on list of top women in book publishing

Ellen W. Faran, director of MIT Press, was named among Book Business magazine's first list of the "50 Top Women in Book Publishing", which recognized and honored industry leaders who affect and transform how publishing companies do business. Faran has led MIT Press' exploration of open-access publishing and the expansion of its programs in digital media, information science and life sciences.

CEE's Buyukozturk named corresponding fellow of the RSE

In recognition of his multidisciplinary work in fundamental fields, including the mechanics of structures and materials for sustainable civil infrastructures, Professor Oral Buyukozturk of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters. Corresponding Fellows are internationally distinguished non-resident fellows of the society. Read more at http://cee.mit.edu/news/releases/2009/buyukozturk.

Mei honored at symposium

Colleagues, friends and former students honored Chiang C. Mei, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at a special symposium June 1-2 during the 28th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering in Honolulu. Designed as a celebration of his accomplishments over the last 45 years, the C.C. Mei Symposium on Wave Mechanics and Hydrodynamics included 10 sessions and more than 50 papers.

EAPS PhD student wins CFUW award

The Canadian Federation of University Women awarded Kate Harris, a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, with this year's CFUW 1989 École Polytechnique Commemorative Award, valued at $7,000. 

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 3, 2009 (download PDF).