Dean for a new century

Corporate-law expert Daniel Fischel, JD'77, assumed deanship of the Law School on January 4, six months ahead of schedule. Appointed dean-elect in August, he succeeds Douglas Baird. Fischel, the Lee and Brena Freeman professor, has initiated a strategic-planning process in connection with the Law School's 2002–2003 centennial.

Winner of the year

Soon after winning the prestigious Lasker Prize and being named a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, U of C cancer geneticist Janet Rowley, PhB'45, SB'46, MD'48, was chosen to receive a 1998 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor.

Romantic fantasy

Assistant music professor Berthold Hoeckner received the 1998 Alfred Einstein Award from the American Musicological Society for his article "Schumann and Romantic Distance." While revising the article, Hoeckner discovered that Schumann's Fantasy op. 17 was inspired by Schumann's forced separation from his fiancée.

Leapfrogging ahead

The 1998 Business Week survey of the country's top business schools ranked the Graduate School of Business third, a large jump from eighth place in 1996.

Student-to-student

Fourth-year Paul Martinez, founder of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, received a student laureate medallion from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Intended to build a bridge between the U of C and the Chicano community, his organization tutors students in the Pilsen neighborhood.

Science as sport

Together with four of the city's major museums, the University will host the 1999 National Science Olympiad. More than 2,000 high-school students from the U.S. and Canada will come to the city May 13–15 to compete in events such as a tower-building competition and a bungee egg drop. Saturday events and the awards ceremony will take place on campus.

Service in space

NASA honored Anthony Tuzzolino, SM'55, PhD'57, senior scientist at the Enrico Fermi Institute, with its public service medal for his role in developing instruments for a number of interplanetary space probes.

Heart healthy

Valluvan Jeevanandam joined the U of C in December as section chief of cardiac and thoracic surgery at the Medical Center. He had been surgical director of the cardiac transplant program at Temple University Medical Center in Philadelphia.

Great book on Britain

Associate professor Katie Trumpener's Bardic Nationalism: The Romantic Novel and the British Empire, received the Modern Language Association's annual prize for a first book. Bardic Nationalism also captured the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize.

The new math

Chicago's math department hired four world-renowned mathematicians this year: 1990 Fields medalist Vladimir Drinfeld; Alexander Beilinson, the first David and Mary Winton Green University professor; professor Nikolai Nadirashvili; and Ridgway Scott, professor in computer science and mathematics.

The millennium approaches

Starting in early March, the University's home page (www.uchicago.edu) will link to a site featuring faculty-written essays related to the millennium and its challenges. Each week for about six months, visitors will be able to read a new essay and vote on a question about its topic.

Our dear Watson

Nobel laureate James Watson, PhB'46, SB'47, received the University of Chicago Medal in November. Watson, president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the structure of DNA.