Robert Birgeneau to receive Vannevar Bush award
Robert Birgeneau, professor emeritus in MIT’s Department of Physics and former dean of science, has been named as the recipient of the National Science Board’s 2016 Vannevar Bush Award. Birgeneau, who is also chancellor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, is being recognized for his “exceptional public service and scientific leadership, including lifelong, high caliber research committed to the public good and tireless advocacy for the nation’s research universities together with unrelenting efforts to advance equity and inclusion in higher education and science,” according to a press release from the National Science Board, which is the policy-making body for the National Science Foundation. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Yale University, Birgeneau joined the physics faculty at MIT in 1975 and was named the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics in 1982. He served as the dean of science from 1991 to 2000 and has been professor...