Notables

Biophysicist Watt W. Webb, the S.B. Eckert Professor in Engineering, has been awarded the Rank Prize for Opto-electronics, together with Winfried Denk of the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, for their invention of multiphoton fluorescence microscopy. The prize, including an award of £40,000, was given June 13 in London by Earl Selborne, chairman of the trustees of the Rank Prize Funds. The technique, first patented in 1991, uses a laser emitting ultrashort pulses of intense light to penetrate biological samples without harming them. The first commercial microscopes operating on this principle are now in service in laboratories worldwide. Webb and Denk were cited for their "outstanding contribution to the science of opto-electronics." The prizes are named for the late British cinema mogul J. Arthur Rank. Previously, the Rank Prize for Opto-electronics was awarded in 1997 to another Cornell physicist, Michael Isaacson, who is now the associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Engineering.

Robert H. Foote, the J.G. Schurman Professor Emeritus of Animal Science, was awarded the 2000 Carl G. Hartman Award of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. He received the award July 15 at the group's annual meeting in Madison, Wis. The Hartman Award is the society's highest award, and it is given in recognition of an exemplary career in research and scholarly activities in the field of reproductive biology. The society recognized Foote's research on preserving bull sperm at 5 degrees Centigrade that led to procedures copied throughout the world today by major insemination organizations. The society also recognized Foote's research on the use of penicillin, streptomycin and polymyxin B to control the transmission of animal venereal diseases -- work that was worth billions of dollars to the dairy industry. Additionally, the society recognized his pioneering work in finding that all female mammals appear to stock eggs rather than develop new ones, and for his work on developing a culture medium that led to the improvement of cattle reproduction efficiency.

The Human Ecology Alumni Association of Cornell has awarded former dean Francille Firebaugh the annual Helen Bull Vandervort Alumni Achievement Award for outstanding professional and volunteer services. Firebaugh, who received her doctoral degree in household economics and management from Cornell in 1962, served as dean of the College of Human Ecology from 1988 to 1999. She was instrumental in launching a master plan for facilities that reflects the commitment to improved classrooms and more sophisticated and interdisciplinary research and outreach endeavors in the college. In addition to being professor and dean emerita, she now is director of special projects in the Offices of the President and Provost. The Helen Bull Vandervort Alumni Achievement Award has been presented annually since 1983 to a graduate of the College of Human Ecology who has demonstrated those qualities exemplified by the late Helen Bull Vandervort. These include outstanding performance in service to Cornell, service to the college, professional roles and/or volunteer roles and responsibilities, and contributions and honors as recognized by one's peers.