Kudos for CU astronomer and CU engineer

Two members of Cornell's faculty have won awards to encourage the research of young scientists.

Margot

DeLisa

Jean-Luc Margot, who joined the Department of Astronomy as an assistant professor July 1, has been awarded the 2004 Harold C. Urey Prize by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), the world's largest organization of professional planetary scientists. Matthew DeLisa, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering since last year, has won a $200,000 early career award from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) for protein research.

The Urey Prize is awarded annually to a member of the DPS to recognize and encourage outstanding achievements in planetary science by a young scientist. The prize will be presented to Margot at the DPS annual meeting Nov. 8-12 in Louisville, Ky.

Margot, who received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1999, is recognized for his broad-ranging studies of solar system binary objects, of planetary spin states and of water ice on the surface of the moon. The studies were made using ground-based and spaced-based telescopes sensitive at radio, infrared and optical wavelengths.

Margot has discovered and characterized binary systems from near-Earth space to an area of small bodies made of ice and rock beyond the orbit of Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt. His high-precision measurements of the spin states of Mercury and Venus are yielding important information about the interiors of those planets.

He also has measured the amplitude of small, periodic alterations, or librations, in the orientation of Mercury, due to changes in the length of the day. This finding has important implications for the state of the planet's core. Additionally, Margot's radar interferometry measurements and digital elevation models have pinpointed potential regions for ice deposits on the moon. Radar interferometry uses two radar receivers for high-precision measurements of topography on the Earth or another planet.

DeLisa's award is one of 10, totaling $2 million, given by NYSTAR to scientists across New York state who are performing their research in the life sciences, biomedical sciences or in other life science-enabling disciplines, such as materials science and chemistry.

The awards were made by NYSTAR under the James D. Watson Investigator Initiative, which is part of the $225 million Generating Employment Through New York State Science (Gen*NY*sis) program, created to maximize the potential of life sciences research being conducted at New York state research institutions. The award will be presented to DeLisa at a ceremony at the State University of New York at Albany, School of Public Health, Oct. 15.

Russell W. Bessette, executive director of NYSTAR, said, "DeLisa's efforts to explore further the ability to fold proteins will play a major role in the creation of novel biotechnology-based drugs, and it will further strengthen Cornell University's stature as a world-renowned center for biotechnology research."

DeLisa said his research exploits the twin-arginine translocation system for protein expression that transports folded proteins across the E.coli membrane for the creation of novel biotechnology-based drugs.