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On 21 June 2012 St. Andrews University (Scotland) confers an honorary doctorate on Jesse Ausubel. Jesse thanks 35 years of wonderful colleagues at the NAS/NAE, IIASA, Rockefeller, Sloan, and around the world for the collaborative works that St. Andrews recognizes.

22 May is 2012’s International Day of Biodiversity, and we are delighted the day features marine biodiversity and the Census of Marine Life in particular.

For some coverage in Spanish, see El Día de la Biodiversidad intenta advertir de la alarmante situación …

‎Jesse Ausubel, director de programas de la Fundación Alfred Sloan (Estados Unidos) y uno de los dos creadores del CVM, dijo a Efe que la …

We at PHE were saddened to learn of the death of Professor Alexander Keynan, a long time friend and colleague. The following obituary (translated from the Hebrew) appeared in the Israeli Newspaper Ha’aretz.

May 8, 2012

Professor Alexander Keynan Dies

Keynan, who was first administrator of the institute for Biology at Nes Tziona and a member of the committee atomic energy, died at 91.

Alexander Keynan, professor emeritus of microbiology at Hebrew University and the first manager of the Biological Institute at Nes Tziona, died on Sunday in his home in Tel Aviv at 91.  Keynan was born in 1921 in Kiev, as Alexander Kotznok.  He arrived in Israel in 1930, studied at the Hebrew University and received his doctorate in 1950.  In 1945 he married Malka ben-tzvi and started a family.

Before the establishment of the state he served in the science department of the Haganah organization, and in 1948 he continued to serve in the science battalion of the IDF.  In 1952 he was one of the founders of the institute for Biology at Nes Tziona and served as the first administrator of the institute.   In 1964 he was appointed to head the national committee for research and development, and three years after that was appointed to head the center for life sciences at Hebrew University and also as a member of the committee atomic energy.  In addition, he served as vice president for  research and development of the Hebrew University.  In 1990 he retired.  In the last decade he appointed Chairman of the Steering Committee for Biotechnology Research in the terrorist era and ntil recently he was senior consultant responsible Israeli National Academy of Sciences and in 2006 won the Bublik award.

“If there was someone who in a rational manner could think about science policy, on how to set priorities for investment in science from a national perspective, and how to redirect the system – there isn’t anybody that you can compare to the Alex on these issues,” the former President of the Hebrew University, Professor Menachem Megidor said last night.   “he was a man of insight and discernment, and what has characterized him among other things was the lack of his ego.  Even scientists dedicated to science often possess an ego that is not small, but with Alex, the good of the matter always the lit the path.” Prof.  Megidor added “I relied on his help many times and consulted with him concerning an entire range of topics, One of the toughest decisions for a university president is to make decisions in areas that you don’t fully understand. Alex was really a resource with no replacement in this respect, that could always be relied upon for his assessment.  He was really a precious person.”

 

As long-time admirers of the potential of nuclear reactors to produce hydrogen, we are pleased to read a sunny report about the non-electric applications of nuclear program of the IAEA.   Nuclear hydrogen fits in our vision of the 21st century evolution of the energy system.

As part of American Entrepreneur Radio’s “Energy: Powering the Future” series profiling energy in the US, Ron Morris talked for an hour with Jesse Ausubel.  The live program aired Thursday 5 April 2012 at 4pm as “Energy in America: How did we get here?” on AM 1360 and FM 104.7 Pittsburgh radio.

We are delighted to learn of the operation and growth of the Maglev Research Center at NYU/Poly involving pioneers James Powell and Gordon Danby and led by Bud Griffis.  We have supported Maglev in many papers, including

JH Ausubel, C Marchetti. The evolution of transport (PDF). The Industrial Physicist 7(2): 20-24, 2001
https://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-7/iss-2/p20.pdf

JH Ausubel, C Marchetti, PS Meyer. Toward green mobility: The evolution of transport. European Review  6(2): 143-162, 1998
https://phe.rockefeller.edu/green_mobility/

JH Ausubel. Big green energy machines. The Industrial Physicist 10(5): 20-24, 2004
https://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-10/iss-5/p20.html

and several papers at
https://cesaremarchetti.org/sublist.php#Transports

 

David Goldman, aka Spengler, cites our 1998 essay “Reasons to worry about the human environment” in his provocative 13 Mar 2012 column in AsiaTimes “Japan’s lost libido and America’s asexual future.”

Colin McInnes, Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Strathclyde, published a

wise essay in The Caledonian Mercury

on 22 February 2012 that makes use of our work on decarbonization.

Pioneering microbiologist Norton Zinder, a great friend of the Program for the Human Environment, passed away 3 February 2012. Nicholas Wade recapped Norton’s career beautifully for the New York Times. Jesse offered a tribute to Norton at the memorial service on 8 February.

Among our joint efforts were the launching of the DNA barcoding movement with a pair of Banbury Conferences on DNA taxonomy at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2003 described about 1’20’ into this video of the history of barcoding ,and the first “Summit of the Cloners,” also at Banbury, in March 2000.