At Brown

Medeiros wins Gaspar/Arzoomanian Award

David Medeiros (far left), lead grounds worker-landscape maintenance in Facilities Management, is the recipient of the 2003 Outstanding Gaspar/Arzoomanian Award, presented to the Facilities Management employee who demonstrates outstanding performance and quality service. The award is named in honor of the contributions of two retired Facilities Management employees, Raul Gaspar and the late Leonard Arzoomanian. Congratulating him is John Noonan, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

The presentation was made at a celebratory breakfast held April 14 in the Faculty Club.

Memorial Service

A memorial service for the late Philip Bray, professor of physics, will be held on Friday, May 7, at 4 p.m. in Manning Chapel. It will be followed by a reception in Lower Manning.

Awards and Honors

Professor of Computer Science Maurice Herlihy has won the 2004 Gödel Prize for his paper "The Topological Structure of Asynchronous Computability," co-written with Nur Shavit and published in the Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery.

The Gödel Prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science is sponsored by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computing Theory of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM-SIGACT). The prize is named in honor of Kurt Gödel in recognition of his major contributions to mathematical logic. It includes an award of $5,000.

Norman Fiering, director of the John Carter Brown Library, was inducted into the Order of Isabel la Catolica at the rank of commander in a ceremony held at the library on April 14.

The presentation was made by Javier Ruperez, ambassador of Spain to the United States, who said that the award was made in recognition of Fiering's services to the promotion of the study of the history and culture of Spain and its empire in America.

The Order of Isabel la Catolica, often called the Royal American Order of Isabella the Catholic, is the second highest civilian honor that the king of Spain can bestow. The award was founded in 1815 by Ferdinand VII and named in honor of the Queen of Castile who reigned during the voyages of Columbus. Originally a reward for American officials and dignitaries who were loyal to Spain or its New World colonies, it is now awarded for merit.

In the past two decades the John Carter Brown Library has published a number of books and pamphlets relating to the history of the Spanish empire in the New World, offered research fellowships to hundreds of scholars from around the world who were engaged in research on the history of the empire, and sponsored dozens of lectures and conferences relating to the history of Spain in the Americas.

Fiering joins five other Brown faculty members who also are commanders in the order: Jose Amor y Vazquez, Antonio Carreno, Edwin Honig, Geoffrey Ribbans and Alan Trueblood.

Brian Evenson, assistant professor of English, is among 12 recipients of creative writing fellowships awarded by the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation. Evenson received the $20,000 fellowship for his novel "The Ex-Father."

The foundation is administered by Brown University. Evenson was selected from among 314 scholars and independent writers nominated by administrative officers of colleges, universities and cultural institutions throughout the country.

The Brown tae kwon do team placed second overall at the 29th annual National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Championships in Bridgeport, Conn., April 18. The team also took second in the novice division, and third in the championship (black belt) division.

The team has moved up steadily each year. In 2003, the team placed third overall, and in 2002 was ranked fifth.

A number of team members medaled in their divisions. National champions included Janice Shelsta '04, who won gold in forms competition (she also became the first Brown woman to ever medal in women's black belt sparring, taking bronze in the lightweight division), and Joseph Fungsang '06, who won gold in forms.

Brown's overall ranking was aided by many wins in forms competition, in which precision, power and technical proficiency are evaluated during the performance of a set pattern of movements and techniques. Gold medals were won by Sharon David '06, Joseph Fungsang '06, Janice Shelsta '04, Catrina Joos '07, Kwan Lin '07. Silver medalists:  Daniel Diaz '07, Nikki Reyes '05, Carol Lim '06, Teresa Yeh '07, Sunny Rhee '06 and Leah Pearlman '04. Bronze: Yoshiro Fujita '06, Peter Herman '07, Mike Shim '07, Courtney Yan '06, and Hanyen Andrew Lee '06.

The team is coached by Peter Lee ('94, MD/PhD '05), Kim Kies, and Daniel Santiago '03.