In brief

The former senior adviser for the Office of International Science and Engineering at NSF has been named deputy director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Julia A. Moore, who had been with NSF for 10 years, began her new post on 27 June and will focus on nanotechnology’s societal impacts.

Five scientists involved with development of the Corona satellite—the world’s first operational photo reconnaissance satellite, designed to observe Soviet missile capabilities during the Cold War—have been jointly awarded the 2005 Charles Stark Draper Prize, one of engineering’s top honors, by the National Academy of Engineering. Minoru Sam Araki, Francis J. Madden, Edward A. Miller, James W. Plummer, and Don H. Schoessler were presented with the award at a February ceremony in Washington, DC, “for the design, development, and operation of Corona,” and will share its $500 000 cash prize. Araki, former president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Co, is CEO and president of ST-Infonox in San Jose, California. Madden is chief engineer of the Corona camera system at Bellingham, Washington-based Itek Corp’s optical systems division; Miller is a former General Electric Co program manager and project engineer; Plummer is former vice president of Lockheed Martin; and Schoessler is a former senior supervising development engineer at Eastman Kodak Co.

The invention of a blood glucose sensor and a device for measuring blood oxygen levels won Leland C. Clark Jr the National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, which he received at a February ceremony in Washington, DC. Clark is a Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, the retired head of the neurophysiology division of the Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati, and professor of science at Antioch College.

Jeong H. Kim has been named president of Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs, located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Kim, a venture businessman and the founder and former chief executive of Yurie Systems Inc, which Lucent acquired in 1998, succeeds Bill O’Shea, who has retired after 33 years of service.

Murray Gell-Mann, discoverer of the quark and winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics, is the 2005 recipient of the American Humanist Association’s Humanist of the Year Award. Gell-Mann is being honored for his contributions to science, his dedication to the environment, and his critical inquiry and skepticism, according to Tony Hileman, AHA executive director. Currently Gell-Mann is a Distinguished Fellow of the Santa Fe Institute, and his recent research has focused on complex adaptive systems.