Robert I. Grossman, M.D., Chief of Neuroradiology and Professor of Radiology, Neurosurgery and Neurology at the Medical Center, has been awarded the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award by the National Institutes of health.
The nearly $4 million award will support Grossman’s ongoing research on neurological disorders in multiple sclerosis patients, enabling him “to study a cohort of patients over a long period of time.”
Grossman is one of only 10 Javits Award recipients this year.
“Obviously, it’s very nice in terms of the peer-review process,” Grossman said. “It represents the confirmation of a long track record and that your work is valued by peers.”
He insists on sharing the honor of the Javits Award. “No one person ever receives an award. It represents a sustained effort of a lot of people over a long period of time.”

Ian McHarg, Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, has won the 2000 Japan Prize. The prize, established in 1983 and awarded by the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan, recognizes the role science and technology play in furthering world peace and prosperity and bettering mankind. It carries with it a $485,000 cash award. McHarg was honored for his work in promoting environmentally responsible development, a cause he first took up in the 1950s. He soon became known for his “McHarg method,” a means by which an area is developed only after taking an inventory of the area’s natural resources, thus conserving trees and not polluting rivers.

Elfriede Regina Knauer, a consulting scholar in the Mediterranean Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, was twice honored last month for her research on the art of ancient times.
Knauer received the Prix Stanislas Julien of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris for her book, “The Camel’s Load in Life and Death.” The book traces the history of artistic representation of camels along the Silk Route.
Knauer was also elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society here in Philadelphia. Knauer’s expertise is in the art history of ancient Greece, the ancient and medieval history of the Silk Route and the culture of the Renaissance.

Truman honors

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation has given the University its Honor Institution Award for 1999. The award, which was presented to President Judith Rodin by Truman Foundation Executive Director Louis H. Blair at a luncheon ceremony Dec. 8, recognizes Penn’s active encouragement of students to pursue public and community service and its consistent success in producing Truman Scholars — 13 so far, the most recent being 1999 Truman Scholar Sarah Zimbler (C’00). Penn was one of five schools honored this year; the other winners were Cornell, Furman University, Indiana University and the University of South Dakota.