NIST's Jin and Keller Honored With PECASE Awards

Physicists Deborah Jin and Mark W. Keller of NIST's Boulder, Colo., Laboratories were awarded on Oct. 24, 2000, the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at the White House in Washington, D.C. They are the highest honors bestowed by the U.S. Government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their careers.

The White House news release on the PECASE winners follows:

PRESIDENT HONORS OUTSTANDING YOUNG SCIENTISTS

President Clinton today named 59 young researchers as recipients of the fifth annual Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The researchers will receive their awards tomorrow in a White House ceremony.

These awards, established by President Clinton in February 1996, embody the high priority the Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers ready to contribute to all sectors of the economy. Eight Federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate the most meritorious young scientists and engineers who will broadly advance the science and technology that will be of the greatest benefit to fulfilling the agencies' missions.

"These extraordinarily gifted young scientists and engineers represent the best in our country," President Clinton said. "Through their talent, ability, and dedication, they will quicken the pace of discovery and put science and technology to work advancing the human condition as never before."

The young scientists and engineers receive up to a five-year research grant to further their study in support of critical government missions. The Federal agencies involved include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

The recipients are:

Department of Agriculture

Randall S. Singer, University of Illinois

Cindy D. Davis, USDA, Agricultural Research Service

Department of Commerce

Mark William Keller, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Deborah Shiu-Lan Jin, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Robert Paul Dziak, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, PacificMarine Environmental Laboratory

Shawn Marie McLaughlin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service

Department of Defense

John Gregory Morrisett, Cornell University

SonBinh T. Nguyen, Northwestern University

Angela M. Belcher, University of Texas at Austin

Barbara Spang Minsker, University of Illinois

Carol A. Clayson, Purdue University

Naoki Saito, Purdue University

Department of Energy

David F. Bahr, Washington State University

Aaron L. Odom, Michigan State University

Jonas C. Peters, California Institute of Technology

Richard B. Lehoucq, Sandia National Laboratories

Zhihong Lin, Princeton University

Zheng-Tian Lu, Argonne National Laboratory

Andrey Zheludev, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Department of Veterans Affairs

Eric J. Huang, San Francisco VA Medical Center (VAMC)

Margot S. Damaser, Hines VA Medical Center (VAMC)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Michael E. Brown, California Institute of Technology

Dana Warfield Longcope, Montana State University

Michael J. Turmon, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Janice M. Yelle, NASA Johnson Space Center

Paul Houser, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Yeqiao Wang, University of Rhode Island

National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services

Philip Ashton-Rickardt, University of Chicago

Michael L. Dustin, Washington University

Leslie S. Ritter, University of Arizona at Tucson

Monica Kraft, National Jewish Medical and Research Center

Charles E. Murry, University of Washington

Henrique von Gersdorff, Oregon Health Sciences University

Karl Kandler, University of Pittsburgh

S. Barak Caine, Harvard Medical School

Christopher S. Chen, The Johns Hopkins University

Geoffrey A. Chang, The Scripps Research Institute

Orna Cohen-Fix, National Institutes of Health

Jeffrey S. Diamond, National Institutes of Health

National Science Foundation

Sara C. Billey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Reinhold Blumel, Wesleyan University

Wilfredo Colón, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

John N. DuPont, Lehigh University

Carl T. Friedrichs, W&M Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Theresa Gaasterland, The Rockefeller University

Susan C. Hagness, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Youssef Hashash, University of Illinois

Scott M. Husson, Clemson University

Edwin C. Kan, Cornell University

John David Kubiatowicz, University of California - Berkeley

Alon Y. Levy, University of Washington

Garrick E. Louis, University of Virginia

Kwan-Liu Ma, University of California - Davis

David L. Patrick, Western Washington University

Georgia Perakis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Anne S. Robinson, University of Delaware

Jenny R. Saffran, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Arthur R. Smith, Ohio University

Kimberley A. Venn, Macalester College