Princeton - Weekly Bulletin 09/27/04

Contents

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Editor: Ruth Stevens
Calendar editor: Carolyn Geller
Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Steven Schultz
Contributing writers: Karin Dienst, Eric Qui–ones, Danielle Scruggs
Photographer: Denise Applewhite
Design: Mahlon Lovett, Laurel Masten Cantor, Margaret Westergaard
Web edition: Mahlon Lovett

Position: Invoice processor in the treasurer’s office. Receiving, auditing and transferring vendors’ invoices for payment. Entering information into vendors’ database. Downloading and submitting e-commerce transactions.

Quote: “Everyone in my department is friendly and easygoing, and I like that.”

Other interests: Watching basketball and football games with his wife, Blessing, and his daughters, 9-year-old Mary and 2-year-old Vera.

Paul Lansky, the William Shubael Conant Professor of Music, has been chosen to receive an award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

The awards are granted by an independent panel and are based upon the unique prestige value of each writer’s catalog of original compositions as well as recent performances.

Lansky, a Princeton faculty member since 1969, has been winning ASCAP awards since 1976. He writes primarily for the medium of computer-generated sound.

The work of Princeton scientists will be featured prominently in an upcoming series of NOVA television documentaries to be aired on public television stations from 8 to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 28-29.

The four-part series, titled “Origins,” examines the history of life, the planet Earth and the universe. The fourth hour of the series, “Back to the Beginning,” explores the forces that shaped the early universe and will have a particular focus on Princeton research. The program will discuss the cosmic microwave background, a low level of radiation that pervades the universe and is a direct product of the Big Bang itself. Much of the most advanced cosmic microwave background research has originated at Princeton.

According to NOVA, the program will feature interviews with two Princeton faculty members, astrophysicist David Spergel and physicist Lyman Page, as well as past interviews with the late Princeton physicist David Wilkinson, a pioneer of cosmic microwave background research. The entire series will be hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and was a visiting research scientist and lecturer at Princeton from 1994 to 2003.

Sam Wang, assistant professor of molecular biology, has been named a Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research by the W.M. Keck Foundation.

Wang was one of five scientists chosen for the honor, which provides up to $1 million in research funding over five years. According to the Keck Foundation, the scholars are chosen for their “extraordinary promise for independent basic biological and medical research, as well as their ability to demonstrate a capacity for future academic leadership.”

Keck cited Wang for his work in studying the design and function of the cerebellum, which coordinates sensory and motor functions in the brain. With a fundamental understanding of cerebellar function and dysfunction, he hopes to develop insights into diverse neurological problems ranging from movement disorders to autism. He has been a Princeton faculty member since 2000.