Lawrence W. Sherman, Ph.D., the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations in the department of sociology, was elected by the American Academy of Political and Social Science to be its next president for a three-year term effective May 1. The Academy, founded by the first faculty members of Penn’s Wharton School in 1889, publishes the Annals, one of the oldest social-science journals in the United States. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Ph.D., dean of the Annenberg School of Communication, was elected chair of the Board of Directors of the group.

Robert Austrian, M.D., the John Herr Musser Professor and professor emeritus of research medicine, has received the Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. The award, given for outstanding contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases or public health, cited Austrian’s “devotion to conquering pneumococcal pneumonia,” a major killer of the elderly or chronically ill.

Marie Gottschalk, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science, will receive the 2000 Ellis Hawley Prize in May from the Journal of Policy History for her article “The Elusive Goal of Universal Health Care in the U.S.: Organized Labor and the Institutional Straightjacket of the Private Welfare State.” The piece won as best essay by a junior scholar appearing in the journal during the previous two years.

Yu Hsiu Ku, Ph.D., professor emeritus of systems engineering, was awarded an honorary professorship at Peking University by Peking University President Zhihong Xu and former President Jia’er Chen during their visit to Philadelphia and the University last month.

Dennis DeTurck, Ph.D., chair of the mathematics department, is this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award for the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Section of the Mathematical Association of America. He is a nationally recognized leader in interdisciplinary math/science programs with an integrated calculus/physics course to his credit. His teaching spans all levels of education, refuses to be contained by the academic year and refuses to limit itself to the classroom.