Newsmakers

Gingerich wins LeRoy Doggett Prize in Astronomy

Owen Gingerich, professor of astronomy and the history of science, received the LeRoy E. Doggett Prize from the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society “in recognition of his wide-ranging contributions to the field and his effectiveness in keeping the history of astronomy before the public.” Gingerich accepted the prize and gave an accompanying lecture, “The Copernican Revolution Revisited” at the American Astronomical Society’s biannual meeting in Atlanta Jan. 15.

The Doggett Prize is awarded alternate years for contributions to the history of astronomy.

Qaum Wins Most Promising Young Scientist Award

Tamim Qaum, a second-year student at Harvard Medical School, won the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Most Promising Young Scientist Award in November. Qaum is a research fellow in Associate Professor of Ophthalmology Anthony Adamis’ lab at the Department of Surgical Research, Children’s Hospital.

Qaum’s research project, conducted in collaboration with Research Fellow in Surgery Qingwen Xu, involved developing a simpler, safer, and more economical technique to replace radioactive tracers in quantifying vascular leakage in diabetic retinopathy.

Simons Wins Runyon-Winchell Fellowship

Kim Simons was awarded a Runyon-Winchell postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard. The fellowship is given by the Cancer Research Fund of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation. The fellowships are given to outstanding young scientists conducting theoretical and experimental research relevant to the study of cancer and the search for cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention.

Simons’ research involves “Structural analysis of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae kinetochore.”