October 2, 2003

News briefs

George W. Scherer, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University, will deliver the Jerome B. Cohen Distinguished Lecture Series in Materials Science and Engineering.

The public is invited to attend the free lectures, which honor the late Jerry Cohen, who was dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science for 13 years. The schedule is as follows: “Materials Issues in the Conservation of Art,” 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, Lecture Room 2, Technological Institute; “Solid/Fluid Interactions: Gels and Cements,” 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, Room L211, Tech; and “Solid/Fluid Interactions: Frost Damage,” 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, Room L211, Tech.

New legislation has added a donation check-off for the Les Turner ALS Foundationto Illinois income tax forms.

The check-off box to Illinois 1040 income tax forms allows taxpayers to donate a portion or all of their returns to the foundation.

Most of the funds generated from the tax check-off will be used to support the Les Turner ALS Research Laboratory at the Feinberg School of Medicine. The research program is led by Teepu Siddique, Abbott Labs Duane and Susan Burnham Research Professor and professor of neurology, who is known worldwide for discovering two genetic causes of ALS.

Northwestern researcher Seema Singhal, M.D., has been named the recipient of a $200,000 Ann Landers Research Fund Award for her investigations into the genetic abnormalities associated with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that afflicts over 45,000 people in the United States. About 15,000 new cases of multiple myeloma are diagnosed annually.

Singhal is professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine and director of the myeloma program in the division of hematology/oncology.