The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 66, No. 32, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 10, 1979 Page: 1 of 12
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The Rice Thresher
Volume LXVI, No. 32
Rice University, Houston Texas
April 10, 1979
Kurtzman and Michel
receive Guggenheims
Rolf Asphaug
Two Rice University
professors have been named
1979 Guggenheim Fellows, the
Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation announced
Monday. Dr. Jeffrey G.
Kurtzman, associate professor
of Music, and Dr. F. Curtis
Michel, Andrew Hays
Buchanan Professor of
Astrophysics, are the only
Houstonians this year to
receive the prestigious grants
for postdoctoral study.
Dr. Kurtzman, a faculty
member of the Shepherd
School of Music since 1975 and
Master-elect of Baker College,
will use his fellowship to
advance his studies of printed
Italian vesper music of 1540 to
1700. Dr. Michel, a professor at
Rice since 1963 and a Wiess
College associate, will continue
his theoretical studies of
pulsars while on sabbatical
leave next school year.
The award will not interfere
with Dr. Kurtzman's duties at
Baker College next year. For
seven weeks this summer and
several months next summer he
will travel across Europe,
compiling a bibliography of
Italian vesper music, in
cooperation wtih a colleague
from Colby College in Maine.
Dr. Michel will work with
scientists at the University of
Paris Center for Theoretical
Studies and at the French
Institute of Fundamental
Research in trying to discover
the physical structure of
pulsars.
"I've been working on
pulsars and their magnetic
field or plasma environment,"
said Dr. Michel. "Nobody
knows how pulsars radiate,"
and the first step in determining
how they do so is to find out
"what they look like".
Continuing study of his basic
field of invest will take Dr.
Kurtzman to Sweden,
England, Poland, France,
Austria, and Germany; but
most of his research will be
done at Bologna, the location
of the most important
collection of Italian vesper
music.
In addition to compiling a
vesper music bibliography, Dr.
Kurtzman will study the
evolution of the early
concertato style in Italian
sacred music in the last half of
the seventeenth century. The
Shepherd School professor is
the author of the latest Rice
University Studies pamphlet:
"Essays on the Monteverdi:
Mass and Vespers of 1610."
Drs. Kurtzman and Michel
were awarded the fellowships
"on the basis of demonstrated
accomplishment in the past and
strong promise for the future,"
according to the Guggenheim
Foundation president. The
memorial foundation is
awarding over $4.6 million to
291 scholars, scientists, and
artists this year.
ft
Dr. Jeffrey G. Kurtzman
Dr. Curtis F. Michel
Nobel Prize winner Wilson
to lecture on Big Bang Theory
Robert W. Wilson, cowinner
of the 1978 Nobel Prize in
Physics, will be honored with
Rice University's 1979
Distinguished Alumnus Award
and will deliver a free public
lecture at 8pm Tuesday, April
17, in the Grand Hall of the
Rice Memorial Center. Wilson
will speak on "After the Big
Bang."
Wilson graduated from Rice
in 1957 with honors in physics.
He won the Nobel Prize for his
part in the discovery that the
universe is pervaded by an
extremely faint electromag-
netic radiation background
thought to have originated in
the early stages of expansion of
the universe. This cosmic
background radiation provides
striking evidence in support of
"big bang" theories that the
universe was initially formed in
a gigantic thermonuclear
explosion, followed by
expansion of the products that
still continues today. Theory
had predicted the presence of
the radiation background as a
residual of these events, but it
remained for Wilson and his
colleague and fellow Nobel
Laureate Arno Penzias to
measure it.
In 1977 Wilson and Penzias
received the Henry Draper
Medal from the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences and the
Herschel Medal from the
Royal Astronomical Society of
London. Wilson is a member of
the American Astronomical
Society, the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences,
the International Astronomical
Union, and the American
Physical Society. He has
published over 60 scientific
papers.
Since 1976 Wilson has been
head of the Radio Physics
Research Department of Bell
Laboratories'. He directs
research on microwave and
millimeter wave semiconductor
devices and components and
on radio astronomy.
Born in Houston in 1936,
Wilson, before enrolling at
Rice, was educated in the.city's
public schools -- West
University Elementary,
Pershing Junior High, and
Lamar High. His early interest
in scientific inquiry and
especially in radio was
encouraged by his family; his
competence was recognized by
the physics faculty at Rice. He
%>ok a Ph.D. from California
Institute of Technology in 1962
and was a post doctoral fellow
at Owens Valley Radio
Observatory before joining the
technical staff at Bell
Laboratories in 1963.
Library marks 1,000,000 books
Margaret Schauerte and Wendy Young pour a little Beer-Bike brew after
leading Jones to victory.
Fondren Library will mark
the acquisition of its one
millionth volume Sunday,
April 22, with a celebration in
the Grand Hall of the RMC.
Librarian of Congress
Daniel Boorstin will speak at
the celebration, which will
include an exhibit of the three
important gifts moving the
library across the one-million
volume threshold.
Commenting about Fondren
Library's reaching million
volume status, acting librarian
Samuel Carrington said "With
the addition of the millionth
volume to its collection, the
Fondren Library has reached a
symbolic milestone in its
history as a viable research
facility serving the Rice and
Houston communities. The
strong committment to the
library by the Board of
Governors, the Adminis-
tration, the Faculty, and the
Students as well as the
continuing support and
encouragement from the
Fondren's many friends will
ensure its future success in
meeting the region's infor-
mational and bibliographic
requirements in letters, science,
and art."
The celebration is intended
to draw attention to Fondren
Library from the Houston
community. Allen Matusow,
chairman of the University
Standing Committee on the
Library, observed, "This
occasion should, for the first
time in a long time, focus
Houston attention on Fondren
Library's progress—something
that is quite important, since
increased visibility is critical for
the continued advancement of
the Library."
Three major gifts will be
presented at the celebration.
The Friends of Fondren
Library, a major support
group, is donating a 1647
original edition of Comedies
and Tragedies by Francis
Beaumont and John Fletcher.
Dow Chemical Company,
US A, is giving the Almagestum
novum astronomiam by
Giovanni Battista Riccioli.
This two-volume work, printed
in Bologna in 1651, is still the
single most important
reference on astronomy
between 1550 and 1650. The
Rice University Board of
Governors is donating The
Printed Sources of Western
Art, Series 1, a 22-volume
reprint collection which brings
together for the first time books
central to the development of
Western aesthetics as embod ied
in art and architecture.
These three gifts will be on
display in the Grand Hall at the
celebration.
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Heard, Michelle Leigh. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 66, No. 32, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 10, 1979, newspaper, April 10, 1979; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245404/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.