For the record
Well-versed in awards
Two University of Chicago Press writers were recently honored for their works of poetry. Jason Sommer, author of Other People's Troubles (1997), received a 2001 Whiting Award, a $35,000 prize from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation; and Gail Mazur's They Can't Take That Away from Me (2001) was named a finalist for the National Book Award.

Reaching for the stars
The University has received a $15 million grant from the National
Science Foundation to establish a national research center where
scientists will spend the next five years studying astrophysical phenomena still unexplained by the laws of physics. The Center for Cosmological Physics will study such phenomena as dark energy, dark matter, cosmic rays, and temperature variations in different parts of the universe.

The right chemistry
Rustem Ismagilov, assistant professor in chemistry, is one of 11 scientists nationwide to receive a 2001 New Faculty Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. Ismagilov studies complex biological systems governed by interactions between multiple chemical reactions. The five-year, $40,000 award provides funding for faculty members at the start of their research careers.

Counting on Webster
Sidney Webster, professor in mathematics, is one of two recipients of the 2001 Stefan Bergman Prize from the American Mathematical Society. The prize recognizes accomplishments furthering the research of Bergman, a Stanford University professor who died in 1977. Webster was cited for contributions to the Bergman kernel function, which Bergman developed in 1922.

The Oracle not at Delphi
The Oracle Corporation has donated $750,000 worth of software and site licenses to the computer-science department, bringing Oracle's total donations to the U of C to more than $4 million over the past two years. The 150 licenses of Oracle's complete software product line for Windows 2000 will be distributed to the department's students, who are often expected by employers to have experience using Oracle when they graduate.

A matter about matter
The Department of Energy's Office of Science has agreed to fund a new program at Argonne National Laboratory that invites theorists from around the world for stays of up to several months to focus on current topics in condensed matter research. The Materials Theory Institute is currently hosting 40 theorists at its first extended workshop, an investigation of the science and technology of next-generation nanomaterials.

Fathom this
Chicago has contributed its first electronic seminar to Fathom (www.fathom.com), a consortium of universities and cultural institutions that provides online content ("Chicago Journal," October/00). The Theatrical Baroque, an adaptation of an exhibition of the same title featured at the Smart Museum of Art last spring, is available in five online sessions, which users can go through at their own pace. The seminar examines the culture of 17th- and 18th-century performing and visual arts in Europe.

A grant for the ages
A team of researchers led by Robert Fogel, the Charles R. Walgreen distinguished service professor in economics and the business school, has received a five-year, $8.2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to continue its study of the relationships among the environment, quality of life, and the economy. Fogel is director of the U of C's Center for Population Economics, which will share the award with research partners MIT and the National Bureau of Economic Research.