ACCOLADES

Ken Kates, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the University Hospitals, received the Beautiful People Award from the Chicago Urban League for utilizing minority- and women-owned businesses in the Comer Children’s Hospital construction project.

The league cited Kates, who accepted the award on behalf of the Comer Children’s Hospital, as person who “supports its mission to eliminate racial discrimination and build economic parity in the city of Chicago through education, economic development and community empowerment.”

The International Health Economics Association has selected Willard Manning, Professor in Health Studies and the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, to receive the 10th annual Kenneth J. Arrow Award in Health Economics.

The award is given annually for the best paper in health economics published in the previous year. The honor is in recognition of Manning’s paper (published with co-author John Mullahy of the University of Wisconsin) titled, “Estimating Log Models: To Transform or Not to Transform?” The Journal of Health Economics published the paper in 2001. Manning received the award last month at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in Washington, D.C.

Multiple awards go to faculty members in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Physics, and the Enrico Fermi Institute

Edward “Rocky” Kolb, Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics and the College, has received the Oersted Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers.

The Oersted Award is the association’s highest honor, recognizing notable contributions to the teaching of physics. Previous recipients of the award with Chicago connections are Nobel laureate Robert Millikan, a member of the physics faculty from 1898 to 1921, and the late Carl Sagan, an alumnus of the University. The award, which carries $5,000, was established in 1936.

Kolb also received the Marx Medal from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in May.

Melba Newell Phillips, Professor Emerita in Physics and the College, has received the Joseph Burton Forum Award from the American Physical Society.

The society cited Phillips “for tireless efforts in physics education, for continued work in preserving the history of physics as well as other service to the physics community, for her role in founding the Federation of American Scientists, and as a model of a principled scientist.”

The award, which carries $3,000, stems from the former Forum Award for Promoting Public Understanding of the Relationship of Physics and Society, established in 1974.

Toshiko Mayeda, a Senior Research Associate in the Enrico Fermi Institute, has recently received two honors. At last summer’s meeting of the Meteoritical Society, it was announced that Asteroid 5939 was named in her honor. In September, she also received the 2002 Prize of the Geochemical Society of Japan.

A chemist, Mayeda has conducted research at the Fermi Institute for more than 50 years, beginning her work there with Nobel laureate Harold Urey in 1950. Her research has included the study of diamonds in meteorites, isotopic studies of past climates, and the production of a comprehensive set of oxygen isotope analyses of meteorites, which is widely used to classify meteorites and to study asteroids.

Paul Rathouz, Assistant Professor in Health Studies, has been selected to receive the James E. Grizzle Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2003 from the department of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina. The award recognizes an alumnus for outstanding contributions to biostatistical methodology, consulting and/or teaching and is intended to identify and encourage rising stars in the field of biostatistics.

The Rockefeller Chapel Choir, under the direction of Randi Von Ellefson, was selected to sing for the national convention of the American Choral Directors’ Association Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Lincoln Center in New York City and in the Riverside Church in New York.

The choir performed a range of music from a 15th-century Italian piece, “Alta Trinita Beata,” to a late 20th-century Shaker piece, “Peace,” arranged by Kevin Siegried.

The Rockefeller Chapel Choir, directed since 1996 by Von Ellefson, is composed of University students, faculty and staff as well as community members.

Barbara Schubert, Senior Lecturer in Music and the Humanities, was named the 2003 Conductor of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras for her work as conductor of the DuPage Symphony Orchestra.

Schubert, who conducts the University Symphony Orchestra and directs the Performing Programs in Music, was cited for her “consistently high artistic standards, energetic podium style and innovative programming.”