Campus Kudos
Mathematician John Tate wins Abel Prize
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel Prize for 2010 to John Tate, professor emeritus of mathematics, for his vast and lasting impact on the theory of numbers. The Abel Prize is the highest honor in the field of mathematics and recognizes contributions of extraordinary depth and influence to the mathematical sciences. It carries a cash award of $1 million. Tate will receive the Abel Prize at an award ceremony in Oslo on May 25.
Law students take first place at Moot Court Competition
Students from the School of Law made an unprecedented near sweep of top honors in the 18th annual Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition after successfully competing in final rounds this month in Brooklyn, N.Y. Patrick Schmidt and David Shank won first place in the competition on March 15, while Rex Mann and Kelli Benham won second place and Mark Little, Mann and Benham won the award for best brief.
Universo radio celebrates 15 years on airwaves
The science radio program Universo will celebrate its 15th anniversary of daily Spanish-language broadcasts on skywatching and astronomy on April 1. Produced by the McDonald Observatory, Universo airs on about 100 stations across the United States, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela, reaching about 2.2 million listeners daily. Recently, the show has become more easily accessible to radio stations through free, production-quality digital downloading of programs.
McCombs among top 15 schools ranked by Princeton Review
For the second year in a row, the McCombs School of Business is one of 15 graduate schools of business named to The Princeton Review’s second annual “Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools” list in the Global Management category. The list appears in the April 2010 issue of Entrepreneur. The Princeton Review compiled the lists using data from its national survey of 19,000 MBA students attending 301 business schools profiled in its book “Best 301 Business Schools: 2010 Edition” published in October 2009.
Assistant professor receives grant to examine Web patterns
Matt Lease, assistant professor in the School of Information, has been awarded an Amazon Web Services grant to support his ongoing research to discover patterns of information flow and alteration across the Web. Lease’s research applies large-scale distributed computation to analyze the massive volume of information that is continually being published on the Web. In particular, content such as news articles, blogs and user comments are decomposed into atomic text snippets which each convey a single idea or concept.
Press Mentions
The New York Times: American wins Norway’s Abel Prize for Mathematics
March 24
An American professor at The University of Texas at Austin has won the 6 million kroner ($1 million) Abel Prize for mathematics.
The prize jury praises John Tate as “a prime architect” of number theory, a branch of mathematics that has played a key role in the development of modern computers.
The award citation issued Wednesday says Tate “has truly left a conspicuous imprint on modern mathematics” by advancing “one of (its) most elaborate and sophisticated branches.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Magnum opus for Ransom
March 25
Even without a Texas nexus, it’s an excellent fit: Magnum’s huge archive of press prints — some predating the founding of the venerated photographers’ cooperative in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and others — has arrived at the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. The archive was recently bought by the private investment firm of computer magnate Michael Dell; the Ransom Center will catalog and exhibit it for at least five years.
The Ransom Center, having recently celebrated its own 50th anniversary, will continue doing what it only seems to get better at: collecting and preserving the paper trails of many media, including the materials just deaccessioned by Magnum.
National Public Radio: Stay-at-home dads grapple with going back to work
March 24
Kevin Folk’s new job requires a lot of multitasking, effective time management, a calm demeanor and excellent diaper-bag packing skills.
Folk was laid off from the National Association of Home Builders last summer, shortly after the birth of his twin boy and girl. Instead of entrusting the babies to a babysitter while he looked for work, he decided to stay home — at least temporarily.
Even before the recession began, the number of stay-at-home dads was on the rise. According to the Census, in 2006 there were 159,000 fathers with working spouses who stayed at home to care for their families, up from 105,000 in 2002.
But that’s only part of the picture, says Aaron Rochlen, an associate professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Rochlen, who studies gender roles and psychology, says many dads with working wives try to work part time or consider themselves “consultants.” But many are, in fact, the primary caregivers to their children.
Read last week’s In the Know.
