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Kopell wins the H. Dudley Wright Prize

Nancy Kopell, the William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Mathematics and Science at Boston University and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation's "genius grant," was awarded the 2001 Wright Prize for interdisciplinary study in science and engineering. Kopell will receive $15,000 and give a lecture entitled Dynamics of the Nervous System: It's Got a Beat You Can Think To on Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in Galileo Hall at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif.

The Wright Prize is awarded annually by Harvey Mudd College and the H. Dudley Wright Foundation, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The prize recognizes scientists and engineers whose interdisciplinary work, research, and accomplishments best reflect the college's educational mission and who have transcended the confines of a single discipline and can serve as positive role models for students. The prize was established at Harvey Mudd College in 1979 through a gift from the late H. Dudley Wright, an industrialist, entrepreneur, and trustee of the college.

As the 15th Wright awardee, Kopell joins other notable honorees, including Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation; Robert Ballard, the marine geologist who found the undersea wreckage of the Titanic; physician-scientist Jonas Salk, who developed the vaccine that prevents poliomyelitis; and Nobel prize- winning biologist Francis H. C. Crick, who discovered DNA.

Kopell is codirector of BU's Center for BioDynamics and has pioneered the field of biomathematics, which applies advanced mathematical techniques to fundamental problems in biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. She was honored for her work as a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1990 to 1995 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.

Berman gets four-year grant from NIAAA and VA award

Marlene Oscar Berman, professor of psychiatry and neurology and director of the Ph.D. program in behavioral neuroscience at Boston University's School of Medicine, has been awarded a four-year grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The grant will support collaborative research with Massachusetts General Hospital scientists on the brain and cognitive changes associated with long-term chronic alcoholism. Berman's work on the cognitive and emotional aspects of alcoholism-related brain damage has received international acclaim.

In addition, Berman -- who also holds an appointment as a research scientist in the psychology service of the VA Boston Healthcare System -- has been honored with a Research Career Scientist Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Research Service.

Her work is currently funded by the VA Merit Review system and by NIAAA.

6 April 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations