Virginia Richards became the third Penn psychology professor to win a National Academy of Sciences Troland Research Award on Jan. 13. The 14-year-old award, named for the late Harvard University Professor Leonard Troland, bestows a $35,000 research grant to psychologists under 40 years of age.

Now in her eighth year at the University of Pennsylvania, Richards was recognized for her research on the way in which the human auditory system distinguishes a single sound from the vast amount of noise of everyday life. Besides her research, Richards teaches an undergraduate course on perception.

Research innovation award

The Research Corporation has recently awarded Assistant Professor of Physics Randall D. Kamien with a Research Innovation Award. Kamien's innovative scientific research in the Department of Physics earned a $35,000 grant. The Research Corporation, a foundation for the advancement of science, awards highly original research conducted by beginning faculty in Ph.D.-granting departments of chemistry, physics and astronomy. Kamien won the award for his project titled "Entanglement hydrodynamics of polymer nematics."

After years of post-doctoral research, Kamien became an assistant professor of physics in 1997. Since then, he has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in the department. Slated to teach a graduate mini-course in February, Kamien also instructs a larger undergraduate physics class.

Arts Council award

James Primosch, chairman of the Department of Music, won a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts award for his composing. He was among 82 people in the arts who won the annual competition from a group of 769 applicants.

WXPN honors

David Dye

Photo by Elena Bouvier

The University radio station WXPN-FM (88.5) was chosen America's Best Non-Commercial Radio Station by weekly radio trade magazines Friday Morning Quarterback and Album Network. Program and music directors from all over the country voted to honor the station.

The station's peers also bestowed individual awards upon two WXPN staffers. Both magazines recognized WXPN Music Director Bruce Warren as Music Director of the Year. Noted for his nationally syndicated program "World Cafe," David Dye was named Radio Personality of the Year by Album Network.

Award for finance writing

A. Craig MacKinlay, Joseph P. Wargrove Professor of Finance, has been recognized for his co-authorship of "The Econometrics of Financial Markets." The book recently won the TIAA-CREF 1997 Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security. The Econometrics of Financial Markets (Princeton University Press, April 1997) was cited for its quantitative financial research analysis. Co-authoring the book with MacKinlay were John Y. Campbell, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard University; and Andrew W. Lo, Harris and Harris Group Professor of Finance at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The award, presented Jan. 4, was named after Samuelson to honor his contributions to the field of economics, demonstrated by his 1970 achievement of becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in economics.

-- Nathaniel Glasser