Chemist John Prausnitz
To Get National Medal

Prausnitz

President Bush announced on Monday that he had selected eight eminent scientists to receive the nation's highest honor for science — the 2003 National Medal of Science — and one of them is John M. Prausnitz, Senior Scientist in Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division and a Professor of Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley. An authority on molecular thermodynamics, Prausnitz will receive his award at the White House on March 14. Medal of Science Laureates are selected for pioneering research "that has led to a better understanding of the world around us, as well as to the innovations and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge." Full story.

Blanch
Culler
Majumdar

Three Lab Scientists Elected to NAE

Three Berkeley Lab scientists have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest professional honors for an American engineer. The Environmental Energy Technologies Division’s Harvey Blanch was elected for his advances in enzyme engineering, bioseparations, and biothermodynamics. The Computational Research Division’s David Culler was elected for his contributions to scalable parallel processing systems. And Arunava Majumdar, of the Materials Sciences Division, was elected for his contributions to nanoscale thermal engineering and molecular nanomechanics. All three are also faculty members at UC Berkeley. For more information, go here.

Gray

Berkeley Lab and the University of California, San Francisco entered into an informal affiliation Feb. 11 designed to integrate the two institutions' cancer research programs. Joe Gray, director of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division and leader of the Breast Oncology program at UCSF’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Frank McCormick, director of UCSF’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, will lead the collaboration. The partnership will promote a multidisciplinary inquiry into the fundamental causes of cancer, and help parlay this knowledge into effective therapies. For more information, watch a recent talk by McCormick.

AFSCME (SX) Local
Bargaining Update

Employees and others picketing along the Berkeley Lab main entrance road in recent days are members of the SX (service) bargaining unit, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union. As was noted recently in Today at Berkeley Lab, Laboratory management presented alternative offers to AFSCME to reach a new wage agreement, and it appears they have both been rejected. While the union has not formally communicated this fact to the Laboratory, leaflets distributed during picketing state that an impasse has been reached in local bargaining. Bill Elkins, Manager, Labor and Employee Relations, states, however, that “the union’s declaration of impasse is incorrect and premature. We are willing to meet and bargain in good faith with the union to resolve this matter. While we respect the union’s right to peacefully engage in informational picketing, we stand ready to bargain with them in good faith.” No new bargaining sessions with AFSCME are scheduled at this time.