Awards

Biochemistry awards

Two members of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry have won awards in recent months. The 2002 Heinrich Wieland Prize has been awarded to Stephen O'Rahilly, Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine. This international prize is awarded annually for contributions to the understanding of the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology or clinical science of lipids and fats. Professor O'Rahilly, who became Head of his Department recently, was awarded the prize for his work on the genetics of human obesity and related disorders. He received the ¤25,000 prize at a ceremony in November at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Munich. The Biochemical Society's Colworth Medal for young researchers was awarded to Dr David Owen (also a member of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research) for his ability in bringing structural biology techniques and approaches to the field of membrane trafficking. Dr Owen has solved many interesting structures, including domains of several proteins which are part of the cytosolic coats required for vesicle traffic on the endocytic and secretory pathways of eukaryotic cells. Most recently, he has solved the complete structure of the heterotetrameric AP-2 adaptor complex.

Royal prize for Darwin letters

A Queen's Anniversary Prize has been awarded to the Darwin Correspondence Project (see last issue page three), which is transcribing, editing and publishing more than 14,500 letters written and received by Charles Darwin throughout his life. Awarded in recognition of the outstanding contribution that the Project has made to the intellectual, economic, cultural and social life of the nation, the announcement was made at a reception at St James's Palace.

University Librarian, Peter Fox, said: "We are honoured that the work of the Project has been recognised in this way. Being awarded this prize, especially in Golden Jubilee year, has been a real boost to the team who work tirelessly to guarantee that Darwin's work and thought can be brought to life for students and general readers alike."

Senior Research Associate on the Project, Alison Pearn, said: "The Project's work throws new light on Darwin, Darwinism and the 19th century foundations of modern science. "Darwin's work is of increasing significance today as there is growing emphasis on his work as a cornerstone of science, contemporary thought and modern values."

Next month marks the publication of Volume 13 of the Correspondence, covering the year 1865.

Other awards

Dr E Allison Green has been selected as the 2002 recipient of the GJ Thorbecke Award of The Society for Leukocyte Biology. This award is given to "a deserving young female investigator working in the area of cellular and molecular mechanisms of host defense and inflammation".

Dr Green is a JDRF/Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow and Principal Investigator in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. She is a member of the Department of Medical Genetics and JDRF/WT Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory. On the 29th October 2002 Professor Chris Lowe, the director of the Institute of Biotechnology, was awarded full-time membership of the Russian Academy of Medical Technical Sciences. Professor Lowe has become the first British member of the Academy since its foundation in March 1992. The membership was awarded in recognition of Professor Lowe's outstanding achievements in the development of modern biotechnology.

The award ceremony took place at the Institute of Biotechnology in Tennis Court Road.

Professor David Brading, Fellow of Clare Hall has been awarded the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration for a foreign citizen given by the Mexican government Professor Brading has taught Latin American history at Cambridge for 30 years and is the author of seven books on Mexican history. He is generally recognised as the leading foreign historian of Mexico. He received the honour from the President of Mexico Vicente Fox, on 12 November at the opening of the Aztecs exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London

Steve Ley, Professor of Organic Chemistry, has won the Ernest Guenther Awards in the Chemistry of Natural Products. The prize is awarded by the American Cemical Society in recognition of outstanding achievements in the synthesis of natural products. He is the first UK chemist to win the prize for more than 30 years. Professor Ley has just completed two years as President of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has recently been appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to Chemistry.

Professor Ekhard Salje, Head of the Department of Earth Sciences and President of Clare Hall, has been awarded the Ising Prize and the Golden Medal of the University of Hamburg for his work on the phase transitions in elastic materials and the investigation of quantum effects in phonon-driven phase transitions. His work has been instrumental in the development of advanced electronic memory devices and, in the field of mineralogy, has spearheaded research into the behaviour of minerals under conditions of high temperature and pressure.

Two students have been awarded funding by the British Federation of Women Graduates. Rosellen Roche will be studying working-class and Protestant and Catholic youth in Derry and Suzana Ograjensek will be studying baroque opera. Dr Bernard Fingleton, of the Department of Land Economy, has been awarded the Moss Madden Memorial medal by the Regional Science Association International: British and Irish Section. He received the prize for his paper entitled 'Equilibrium and economic growth: spatial econometric models and simulations'.

Dr Robin Spence, Reader in Architectural Engineering, has been elected President of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering. Dr Spence is a structural engineer whose research is currently focused on disaster risk assessment and mitigation. He is the Director of the newly-formed Cambridge University Centre for Risk in the Built Environment. He is also Academic Advisor to the IDBE Course, a Fellow of Magdalene College, and a Director of Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd.

In recent months the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Alec Broers has received the following awards: an Honorary DEng from UMIST, an Honorary PhD from the University of Peking and an Honorary Fellowship of ATSE (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering).

Professor Andrew Cliff of the Department of Geography has been elected to the Academia Europaea.

Visionary science

For the second-year running Dr Rafal Dunin-Borkowski has won an award in the national Visions of Science photographic competition. Dr Burkowski, a Royal Society Research Fellow, won a Highly Commended Award in the Science Close Up category for his picture called Magnetic Rock.