Notables

Professor of entomology Quentin D. Wheeler, along with Harvard's Edward O. Wilson and the Missouri Botanical Garden's Peter H. Raven, were granted editorial space in the Jan. 16 journal Science to plead the case for more public funding for 21st-century taxonomy. In their editorial titled "Taxonomy: Impediment or Expedient?" the biologists urged fellow scientists to "imagine a taxonomic renaissance built on a foundation of cyber-infrastructure." Wheeler recently returned to campus after three years as director of the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation. Raven will visit campus April 29-30 as the 2004 Iscol Distinguished Environmental Lecturer. His public address, titled "Biodiversity, Sustainability and Cornell," is scheduled for April 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall.

Robert Jarrow and Maureen O'Hara, both professors at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, are among six people who have been named senior fellows at the newly created Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Center for Financial Research. The center will sponsor research on key issues and developments affecting the banking industry, the role of banks and other financial services firms in the economy, risk management issues, regulatory policy and related topics of importance to the FDIC's mission of promoting financial stability in the U.S. economy.

Jarrow is the Ronald P. and Susan E. Lynch Professor of Investment Management, and professor of finance and economics at the Johnson School. His teaching and research interests involve the study of mathematical finance relating to the pricing of derivatives, risk management, investments and asset pricing theory. He is currently engaged in research relating to credit derivatives, liquidity risk and exotic options. He is the managing editor of Mathematical Finance and co-editor of The Journal of Derivatives. He was named the 1997 Financial Engineer of the Year by the International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE).

O'Hara is the Robert W. Purcell Professor of Management and professor of finance at the Johnson School. Her research and teaching interests are in financial institutions, particularly the structure of the securities market. Her recent research has examined the effects of information on asset prices, and the optimal regulation of exchanges and alternative trading systems. She is executive editor of The Review of Financial Studies and past president of the American Finance Association. Both O'Hara and Jarrow are widely published in their fields.

Philip R. Dankert won the 2003 State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship, given in recognition of his outstanding service to the Cornell Library system and to the School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Martin P. Catherwood Library. Dankert, the Collection Development Librarian at the ILR library since 1968, has been responsible for the selection of more than half of the library's current collections.

Joseph Laquatra, professor of design and environmental analysis, has been elected chair of the National Consortium of Housing Research Centers for 2004-06. The consortium consists of representatives from 17 universities, several associate members and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center. The group provides an educational session every year at NAHB's International Builders Show and is currently working with the National Science Foundation to develop a national housing research agenda.