HONORS

At its 112th annual meeting this month, the American Historical Association presented its award for Scholarly Distinction to Benjamin I. Schwartz, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science Emeritus. The award is conferred by the Association upon senior historians "of the highest distinction."

Schwartz originally specialized in Romance languages and literature but was selected during World War II to be among the first group of Harvard students to learn modern Japanese. He served in the cryptanalysis section of the intelligence branch of the U.S. Signal Corps, intercepting Japanese messages from 1942 to 1946. The experience sparked Schwartz's interest in East Asian studies, and he returned to Harvard to teach introductory Chinese and Japanese history for many years.

In 1996 Schwartz published his most recent book, China and Other Matters. Previous titles include In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West as well as The World of Thought in Ancient China, winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of Phi Beta Kappa and the James Henry Breasted Prize of the American Historical Association.

In a ceremony held last month, President Clinton awarded the 1997 National Medals of Technology and Science to 14 outstanding scientists, inventors, and business leaders. This year's winners have distinguished themselves in genetics, cancer diagnosis and treatment, Internet technology, and motion picture sound. Among those honored were Harvard's William K. Estes, Daniel and Amy Starch Professor of Psychology Emeritus, and Shing-Tung Yau, Higgins Professor of Mathematics.

Estes's studies of how people and animals learn have helped move psychology from a descriptive science to a behavioral science based on mathematical modeling. In 1950 he published the Psychology Review article, "Toward a Statistical Theory of Learning," which demonstrated how internal mental processes that are not directly observable can be tested with empirical data. Estes received the National Medal of Science for changing the practice of experimental psychology in fields of learning, memory, and cognition.

Yau, whose field combines differential geometry and partial differential equations, received the National Medal of Science for his impact on fields as diverse as topology, algebraic geometry, general relativity, and string theory. Yau's combination of two different mathematical approaches has resulted in the solution of several longstanding and important problems in mathematics. Previously, his collaborative work has used the positivity of space-time and the condensation of matter to explain the problems of relativity theory and black holes.

Friends of Kurt J. Isselbacher, Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, gathered recently to dedicate two tributes to his lifetime achievements. The Kurt J. Isselbacher Library was made possible by $250,000 in gifts from patients and colleagues of Isselbacher. In addition, the Kurt J. Isselbacher/Peter D. Schwartz Professorship in Oncology at Harvard Medical School was announced. Its endowment comes from a $2.75 million gift by Laurel Schwartz that honors both Isselbacher and Schwartz's late husband. A search committee has been looking to find a cancer researcher to fill the professorship within this upcoming year.

"I'm indebted to so many who have supported my efforts -- both generous contributors and dedicated research and clinical staff members," said Isselbacher.

MEDICINE

George P. Canellos, William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine at the Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Greece. He received the degree for his contributions to the chemotherapy of malignant disease.

Canellos served as chief of Dana-Farber's Division of Medical Oncology for 20 years. He oversaw a renowned team of cancer researchers and was instrumental in developing a training program in the field. An editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, former president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and editor of several books, Canellos has previously been recognized with fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians in Britain and in Scotland.

At the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society last month, Cesare T. Lombroso, professor of neurology emeritus at the Medical School and chief emeritus of the Division of Neurophysiology and of the Epilepsy Program at Children's Hospital, was honored for his pursuit of excellence and his contribution to the lives of children. Lombroso received the William G. Lennox Award for his "pioneering work in both clinical and neurophysiology and in the management of epilepsy."

The Society of Pediatric Radiology recently presented its most distinguished honor, a Gold Medal for pediatric radiology, to N. Thorne Griscom, professor of radiology at the Medical School and Children's Hospital. The medal is awarded to individuals who have contributed greatly to the Society and to the field of pediatric radiology as scientists, teachers, personal mentors, and leaders.

Griscom first practiced in the subspecialty of radiology in 1958. At that time, after working at a pediatric residency, he was thrust into a new job in the Army. The experience was unexpected, but undoubtedly valuable, since Griscom later devoted himself to the field. In past years he has been a president of the Society for Pediatric Radiology and the New England Roentgen Ray Society and he continues to be a fellow of the American College of Radiology.

In his clinical work Griscom has been known for his meticulous accuracy, and in his teaching work he has been known for his engaging lectures. He was a reviewer or editor for more than a dozen journals of radiology and pediatrics and authored or coauthored countless articles, book chapters, and editorial abstracts in his field. Finally, alongside his medical and academic pursuits, Griscom has sustained a unique interest in the history of radiology. He has written an account of the Department of Radiology at Children's Hospital, a centennial chronicle of the discipline's history in the United States, and biographies of notable leaders in the field.

Michael Radosevich, a doctoral student in immunology at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, recently won a one-year, $20,000 fellowship from the organization Research to Prevent Blindness. Radosevich's work is aimed at improving corneal and retinal transplants by increasing medical knowledge of the human leukocyte antigen system and immune system response in the eye. He has been working under the direction of Santa J. Ono, associate professor at the Medical School and associate scientist at the Schepens Eye Research Institute.

Research to Prevent Blindness is the world's leading voluntary organization supporting eye research, and has previously channeled more than $148 million to medical institutions in the United States. The Schepens Eye Research Institute is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School and the largest independent eye research center in the nation.

LIBRARIES

In a reception held last month, James E. Walsh was honored by the Houghton Library for 50 years of service, including work as head of the catalog department and as keeper of printed books. Walsh has left his mark on Houghton's Germanic collections by traveling to Europe and seeking titles for Harvard from bookstores, book fairs, and auctions. Above all, Walsh celebrated the completion of the final volume of his masterwork, A Catalogue of the Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in the Harvard University Library.

Walsh's publication is the first complete documentation of Harvard's 4,000 incunabula (books that were printed with moveable type before 1501). Walsh had developed an interest in early editions of classical authors due to his graduate study in Classics at Harvard. When he arrived at the Houghton Library, he soon began working with the incunabula. In the course of his bibliographical research, Walsh came upon some interesting discoveries, including a lost 1494 dated sheet from an otherwise unidentified almanac.

The Harvard-Yenching Library's show "More (or Less) than Books" will run through January. This exhibit is a display of items of research value that are not in traditional book formats. Examples include a red "extra" of the People's Daily, which announces normalized relations with the United States in 1978; postage stamps; scrapbooks; and handwritten notes.