David Mumford, professor of applied mathematics, is this year’s co-winner of the mathematics award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation, a Hong Kong foundation that rewards individuals who achieve significant breakthroughs in scientific research. Mumford is being honored for his contributions to mathematics, and to the new interdisciplinary fields of pattern theory and vision research. He shares the award with Wu Wensun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at Beijing. (The Dallas Morning News also included mention of Mumford’s award. Its coverage is here: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/062206dnmetwang.aadb3f84.html)

Martin A. Weinstock, chairman of the American Cancer Society’s skin-cancer advisory group and professor of dermatology at Brown University, offers suggestions about sunscreen use. This article also appeared in a dozen U.S. newspapers.

The Bristol Town Council voted to send Roger Williams University a tax bill of $660,308. On June 21, at the Town Council’s direction,state Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr. submitted legislation in the R.I. General Assembly that would completely remove the university's tax-exempt status. In 2003, Brown University, Providence College, Johnson and Wales University and the Rhode Island School of Design agreed to pay a total of $50 million over two decades to Providence to help defray the cost of municipal services. That agreement was made only after Providence officials filed state legislation that would have lifted the tax-exempt status of those educational institutions.

Nearly 2,000 people participated in Shape Up RI, organized by Brown University medical student Rajiv Kumar to take on the epidemic of obesity.

Wednesday as the Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to boost the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. Professor of Political Science Darrell West notes that “the minimum wage has been a winning issue for Democrats, because it's very popular with working people and it shows the compassionate face of the Democratic Party." This article appeared in other newspapers and on news Web sites around the United States.

Columnist David Brooks writes that members of the U.S. World Cup team may not be leading scorers, but they do have an edge over other World Cup players in one area: They graduated from college. Brooks praises American universities for the broad social role they play. “They not only serve as the training grounds for professional athletes, unthinkable in most other nations, they also contribute more to the cultures and economies around them,” he writes.