Alumni honored with Wilbur Cross Medals
Four alumni of the Graduate School received Wilbur Lucius Cross Medals, the Graduate School's highest honor, on October 6. This year's honorees were geneticist Michael S. Levine ’81PhD (molecular biophysics and biochemistry), art historian Richard J. Powell ’82MA (African American studies), ’88PhD (history of art), and particle physicist William J. Willis ’54BS, ’58PhD (physics). In addition, Laura L. Kiessling ’89PhD (chemistry) received her medal, which was officially awarded in 2008.
A groundbreaking researcher, Levine studies gene networks that control animal development and disease, and how DNA segments turn on and off. He heads the Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Development and is co-director of the Center for Integrative Genomics at UC-Berkeley.
Powell is considered the nation's foremost scholar on the history of African American art. He is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University and editor-in-chief of Art Bulletin, published by the College Art Association.
A pioneer in the field of elementary particle physics, Bill Willis developed some of the most basic tools of high-energy elementary particle research: calorimetry and transition radiation. He is the Higgins Professor of Physics at Columbia University.
Kiessling pioneered the field of carbohydrate-mediated biology. Her research involves designing and synthesizing molecules that mimic natural molecules. She is currently the Hilldale Professor of Chemistry and the Laurens Anderson Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin.
The Yale Graduate School Alumni Association established the Wilbur Cross Medal in 1966 to honor alumni for outstanding achievement. An alumnus of Yale College and the Graduate School (PhD 1889, English), Cross was a scholar and literary critic who served as dean of the Graduate School from 1916 to 1930. Following his retirement from academia, he was elected governor of Connecticut for four terms.
Learning from Nobel laureates
Every summer since 1951, Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics, and physiology/medicine have convened in Lindau, Germany, to meet with students and young researchers from around the world. Laureates give lectures and meet informally with students. This year, Yale sent two emissaries: Brooke Rosenzweig ’11 (chemistry) and Imran Babar ’11 (molecular, cellular, developmental biology). They joined about 600 other young scientists and 20 Nobel prizewinners.
"It was great to be able to chat one-on-one with a few laureates, including Drs. Erwin Neher and Richard Ernst," said Rosenzweig. Neher began his prize-winning work on single ion channels in cells as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale. Ernst won his prize for his work on nuclear magnetic resonance.
Babar was moved by the laureates' personal stories. "They basically love science and passionately and insightfully followed their results wherever they led; winning the Nobel Prize was just a stop along the way. I appreciated the talks that included 'life lessons.' For example, Professor Richard Ernst talked about the need to have two 'legs' to stand on as a scientist. We need science as one leg and a 'passion' as another leg to keep us balanced."
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