Faculty

Briefs

Sheldon Garon, professor of history and East Asian studies, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for 2005-06 to support his work on a new book.

Garon, a historian of modern Japan with comparative interests in European, American and Asian history, has titled the book “Fashioning Cultures of Thrift: Promoting Saving in Japan and the World.”

The volume will be a comparative history of various governments’ efforts to encourage saving among their citizens. Comparing Japan with the United States and several European and Asian nations, Garon argues that with their high rates of saving and cautious approach to consumption, continental European countries have much in common with Japan and South Korea — and that it is the Americans who are exceptional.

Robert Lupton, senior research staff member in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, has been selected to receive the 2005 Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

The award is given for recent significant observational results made possible by innovative advances in astronomical instrumentation, software or observational infrastructure. Lupton was recognized for his “central and crucial role in the development of software for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” according to the citation.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a consortium of more than 200 astronomers at 13 institutions in which Princeton has played a major role. Its goal is to map up to a quarter of the entire sky and to determine the position and brightness of several hundred million celestial objects. In 2004, it released to the public one of the largest catalogs of astronomical data ever produced.

Lupton, who earned his Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton in 1985, has been a member of the University’s research and technical staff since 1990. His award, which includes $500 and a plaque, will be presented at the society’s annual meeting in Tucson in September.

Founded in northern California in 1889, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific outgrew its regional origins long ago to become a worldwide organization of astronomers and educators.

Cornel West has won the 2005 Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom.

According to an announcement from the Lannan Foundation, the $350,000 award is intended to recognize those who promote and protect the human right to freedom of imagination, inquiry and expression. The foundation defines cultural freedom as “the right of individuals and communities to define and protect valued and diverse ways of life currently threatened by globalization.”

West, the Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion, lectures and writes widely on a variety of subjects, including racial equality, American imperialism, war and peace, ending street violence, democracy and spiritual politics.

“At a time in modern history where one sees the greatest disparity ever between rich and poor, Dr. West’s talks unnerve and unsettle the comfortable classes, while communicating a sense of hope and justice to the politically and economically marginalized,” said J. Patrick Lannan Jr., president of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based Lannan Foundation.

West earned a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1980.

Andrew Wiles, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics, has been chosen to receive the 2005 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, a major award administered by the Shaw Foundation of Hong Kong.

The prize, which carries a cash award of $1 million, is being given to Wiles for his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem. The presentation is scheduled for Sept. 2.

Wiles gained worldwide fame for his 1994 solution to Fermat’s Last Theorem, a problem in number theory that had baffled mathematicians for 350 years. A Princeton faculty member since 1982, he has earned several awards for his work, including the Wolf Prize in Mathematics and a MacArthur Fellowship.

The Shaw Prize, given for the first time last year, is presented to individuals “who have achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or application and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind.” It is awarded in three areas: astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematical sciences.

Last year, James Peebles, the Albert Einstein Professor of Science Emeritus at Princeton, won the Shaw Prize in Astronomy.