Notables

The Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize Committee of Fukuoka City, Japan, has selected Benedict Anderson, the Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor of International Studies, as a recipient of the year 2000 academic prize. Anderson is a leading scholar in the field of Southeast Asian area studies. Focusing his research on Thailand, the Philippines and particularly Indonesia, he has furthered comparative historical studies of culture and politics worldwide. One of his most important works, Imagined Communities, has had a major influence by breaking new ground in the study of nationalism. It has been translated into 18 languages and will be published shortly in six additional languages. The Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes were organized in 1990 by Fukuoka City and the Yokotopia Foundation to honor the outstanding work of individuals and organizations that have helped preserve and create unique and diverse cultures in Asia. Nominees are experts in academic research, education, arts and culture and the press throughout the world. The official events associated with the 2000 prizes took place in Fukuoka City, Sept. 14-19.

Composer and music instructor Brian Robison has won the 2000 Whitaker Commission for an orchestral work titled Imagined Corners, the American Compers Orchestra (ACO) announced in July. The honor includes a $15,000 prize and a world premiere performance by the ACO at Carnegie Hall. Robison was one of seven finalists out of a field of 150 vying for the commission at the ACO's annual Whitaker New Music Reading Sessions. Robison earned his Ph.D and master's in composition at Cornell and studied under various music faculty including Steven Stucky, Karel Husa and Roberto Sierra. In 1991, Robison won the Maurice Ravel Prize at the American Conservatory in Fountainebleau, France. He currently is an instructor of music at Cornell and at Ithaca College. The Whitaker is Robison's first orchestral commission and he has begun composing the music for the new work, titled In Search of the Miraculous, which will be performed during the ACO's 2001-2002 season.

Jack Henion, professor of toxicology and director of the Analytical Toxicology Laboratory in the College of Veterinary Medicine, received an honorary doctorate May 26 from the faculty of pharmacy at Sweden's University of Uppsala. The honor at the university's 400-year-old commencement was in recognition of Henion's pioneering work in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and related techniques. A member of the Cornell faculty for 24 years, Henion also is the co-founder, president and CEO of Advanced BioAnalytical Services Inc. of Ithaca. The honorary degree from Uppsala was the second such for Henion, who received a similar award from the University of Ghent in Belgium in 1992.