Two faculty members will receive the FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE AWARD from the Madrid-based BBVA Foundation, which recognizes research with broad impact. Geosciences professor Isaac Held *76, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, was cited in the climate-change category. His study of atmospheric water vapor helped to reveal the processes behind geographic climate zones and to predict how those zones will change as the atmosphere warms, the foundation said. Angus Deaton, professor of economics and international affairs, received the economics, finance, and management award; the foundation called him “a pioneer in the measurement of welfare and poverty.” Each will receive an award of 400,000 euros, more than $500,000.
Music professor and composer Steven Mackey won a GRAMMY for Best Small Ensemble Performance Feb. 12 for his album Lonely Motel: Music from Slide, along with collaborators Rinde Eckert, who provided the text and vocals, and the sextet eighth blackbird, which commissioned the work. Mackey, who began his career as a rock and blues guitarist, plays electric guitar on the album.
The chairman of the music department, Mackey teaches composition, theory, 20th-century music, and improvisation. He has composed for chamber ensembles, orchestras, and operas.
President Obama has appointed Eldar Shafir, professor of psychology and public affairs, to thePRESIDENT’S ADVISORY COUNCIL ON FINANCIAL CAPABILITY, whose mission is to help Americans make informed financial decisions. Shafir specializes in behavioral economics and decision-making.
Four seniors and a recent graduate have been awarded the GATES CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARSHIP to pursue master’s degrees at Cambridge University. The recipients are Daniel Barson ’12, a molecular biology major who will pursue a master’s in clinical neurosciences; anthropology major Victoria A. Tobolsky ’12, in human evolutionary studies; chemistry major Daniel Strassfeld ’12, in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, technology, and medicine; religion major Jane Abbottsmith ’12, in theology and religious studies; and English major Rachel Bolten ’10, in English studies.
IN MEMORIAM MALCOLM S. STEINBERG, a molecular biologist and member of the faculty from 1966 to 2005, died Feb. 7 in Princeton of lung cancer. He was 81. Steinberg came to Princeton after he had introduced the differential adhesion hypothesis that certain cells during embryo development behave like liquids, adhering to other embryo cells in a way that ultimately defines the shape of the embryo at various stages of development. Steinberg, who was the graduate-studies director of the then-biology department from 1969 to 1972, continued to explore his hypothesis in many of the more than 150 scientific papers he co-wrote.