III Volume XCVII, Number 4 Pasadena, California Friday, October 13, • cades he Ascona, Switzerland, where he is will continue to have, an impOl~ genes, genes that influence how has been attending a scientific confer­ tant impact on medicine and on the undifferentiated cells in a PASADENA-The Royal studying ge­ ence. our understanding ofhow organ- fertilized embryo separate into Swedish Academy ofSciences an­ netic muta­ "I think that it's won­ a head and a tail nounced Monday that Edward B. tions in derful for my colleagues, how the eyes, legs, anten­ Lewis, Caltech's Thomas Hunt fruit flies because they're very de­ "As you can imagine, nae, and other organs all Morgan Professor of Biology, and how serving. It's also wonder­ form in their correct Emeritus, will share the 1995 these affect ful that the academy rec­ I'm overwhelmed. 's tions. These genes are Nobel with two an insect's ognized basic research. quite a shock. " highly conserved-that is, other scientists for "the genetic develop­ The benefits of research are very similar-in Dr. Erlw(lTIi Lewis control ofearly embryonic devel- ment. into the genetics of fruit all organisms, and a As the citation accompany­ flies have turned out to be EDWARD . LEWIS role in the of 23rd Nobel Prize ing the announcement ex­ very important for under­ everything from fruit flies won by a Caltech faculty member plained, "his pioneeringwork on standing human develop­ NOBEL to mice to humans. or a Caltech alumnus. homeotic genes induced other ment and the mecha­ Lewis, a native of Lewis, 77, is renowned for scientists to examine families of nisms underlying some WilkesjBarre, his work on the genetics of analogous genes in higher or­ genetic diseases." isms, including humans, de­ nia, earned his BA in 1939 from Drosophila fruit flies. He has ganisms." "Ed's contributions have velop." the University ofMinnesota, and been at Caltech as a student and "As you can imagine, I'm been very profound," said Tho­ In the 1950s Lewis played a his PhD in 1942 from Caltech. faculty member since 1939, and overwhelmed. It's quite a shock," mas E. Everhart, president of key role in discovering and ex­ He currently resides in San for the past five and a half de- said Lewis by from Caltech. "His work has had, plaining the role of homeotic Marino, California. Caltech Olga Taussky-Todd, Profes­ sor Emeritus of M,HtlernatlCs, died on October is survived by nlIS[larrG, Todd, also Pro,tessor Errleritus Mathematics. Olga Taussky-Todd began her active mathematical career in 1930. She received much of her training in mathematics from Furtwangler and Emmy Noether, one of the founders of modem algebras, and she served as an assistant to Courant when she spent a year at Goettingen. She joined the Caltech faculty as a Research Associate in Mathemat­ elected a Fellow ofthe American ics in 1957. She was promoted to Association for the Advancement the rank of Professor of Math­ of Science, she was a Corre­ ematics in 1971 and to Professor sponding Member of the Emeritus of Mathematics in Bayerische Akademie del' 1977. She was the first woman to Wissenschaften, and she was be appointed Professor in the awarded the Medal ofScience by Division ofPhysics, Mathematics the Austrian Ministry ofScience and Astronomy. and Research. In addition, she Her specialties in mathemat­ was elected to the Council ofthe ics were algebraic number theory American Mathematical Society and matrix theory, and in both in 1972 and served on it until fields shewas recognized as one 1985, when she was elected Vice of the world's leading experts. President ofthe Society. In 1976, Among her many honors and she was honored as one of the awards, she received an Honor- foremost living women in math­ ary from the Universty ematicians at a symposium at of California, she was Caltech. She will be sadly missed. ASCIT MINUTES 3 WORLD NEWS 3 4 5 llUJrV"""'''11 Ii CRIME AND INCIDENT EEAT 7 CROSSWORD 8 YNEWS 9 SPORTS 10 ANNOUNCEMENTS 12 The Ca,lifornia your Friendly Tech Editmrs as forced traffic congestion due Address, Dr. Mark Wrighton, a (and their friendly sidekicks) a to the "de-emphasis", all of us Caltech Ph.D., a MacArthur Fel­ What a week! We actually got a wonderful amount of to students should be even more cautious on low, a former MIT Provost, and submissions, and we're excited for more. Thanks again to California Blvd. now President of Washington Autumn Looijen and Samantha Gizerian for great layout Editol~ University, gave an extremely in­ work. Sincerely, teresting speech which was quite We've rejuvenated our mailing list from last year. On In reference to the letter by D. A. Papanastassiou well received. our list, we post suggested story ideas to potential writers and Keil Maberry on the "de-empha­ Last Spring, before gradua­ get feedback. Ifyou'd like to join our list, please send email sis" of California Blvd: I have Students' opinions tion, nomination sheets were to editors@tech. Undergraduates, graduates, professors and lived on California Blvd. for posted at all the undergraduate staff members are all very welcome to participate. Also, if more than 25 years. heard in graduation houses byJunior Class President you're a member of a club and your group does something I want the students to be speaker Nestor Ocampo. They were tal­ special, please write an article or share it with us. aware that streetintersections on lied and a report given to Presi­ It's not too late to add PA15 and receive three units of California Blvd. have relatively Dear Editor, dent Everhart. He is now again pass/fail credit! Stop by the Coffeehouse todayat 12:15 with high accident rates for pedestri­ attempting to interest one ofthe an add card and join our staff! Free food and nearly free ans, bicycles, motorcycles and As chair ofthe Convocations students' top choices. (There was credit, all in one! cars. I can single out the inter­ Committee, I was a bit puzzled no overwhelming first choice se.ctions at Los Robles, \Vilson, by some ofthe statements ofcan­ this time.) Hill Avenues, and the pedes­ didates for Senior Class Presi­ I look forward to working D€:~adllirles for Submission to The Tech crosswalk at the tennis dent printed in the Tech Oct. 6. with the student officers to make Last year, seniors were Letters to the - 5 P.M. Monday cburts, which has a delayed acti­ this year's Commencement vation for good reason. polled twice about their choices memorable. The Committee and Events and Notices - 5 P.M. Tuesday Left turns and running red for graduation speaker, and each the Administration have taken Unsolicited Articles - 5 P.M. Tuesday signals are frequent culprits; time, Pres. Everhart made every students' opinions into account Regular/Semi-Regular Columns- 5 P.M. Wednesday speeding is also a problem, with effort to get the students' first and will do so in the future. Any­ Articles, News Submissions- 5 P.M. Wednesday the average speed on Calif. Blvd. choice to come. We were led by one with any suggestions for Art/Photo Submissions - 5 P.M. Thursday probably at about 40 mph. Us­ the first speaker's office to be­ graduation activities or for any ing Del Mar Blvd. has the disad­ lieve that he would come, but he method for getting a larger pro­ vantage of PCC traffic. One last eventually had a schedule con­ portion of students to take part word of advice I obtained from flict. So students were polled actively in planning for and or­ a City Engineer, as of ten years again, and the President again ganizing graduation activities, ago: "only a fool would ride a bi­ tried very hard to recruit their please email me at Kousser@hss. cycle on California Blvd.". These first choice. Morgan Kousser, days, when motorists are more The person ultimately cho­ Prof. of History and Social Sci­ aggravated with what is perceived sen to give the Commencement ence was the IMPACT '95 seminar. Caltech 40-58 SAC, Pasadena, CA 91125 The group sent invitations to phone: (818) 395-6153 e·mail: [email protected] Caltech Space Society high schools across the ISSN 0008-1582 first major meeting Southland to come to the one­ year this Saturday at 6:00 day eventto learn about the na­ VOLUME XCVII, NUMBER 4 at Winnett Lounge. This ture of asteroids and comets. OCTOBER 13, 1995 the third year ofthe club's The 40 students who re­ the leadership sponded sawcompllter simula­ Brown, who has also tions ofthe gravitational interac­ COpy IEorrOR Maria Huang Shay Chinn a member of the national tions ofbodies in space, watched Stephen Van Hooser board for Students for the Explo­ the creation of a WWW page on LAYOUT EDITORS STAFF WRITERS Autumn looijen Michael Kantner ration and Development of the event, which included pic­ Samantha Gizerian Stephen Van Hooser Mason Porter (SEDS), an organization turestaken earlier in the day, and MiSCELLANEOUS EDITOR Myfanwy Callahan over 100 chapters in high got the opportunity to make Mason Porter fEATURE WRITERS schools and colleges across the their own comets out ofdry ice, EVENTS AND NOTICES Adam Villani Terry Moran water, ammonia and dirt and Terry Moran The purpose oftheCaltech drop them off of Millikan Li­ BUSINESS MANAGER CONTRIBUTORS Fransisco Gutierrez laura Brady Society is to promote pub- brary to make craters in a wad­ David Relyea education and awareness ing pool full of flour-dirt "re­ CIRCULATION Donna Ebenstein space, the space program golith". The event was highly AOVISOR Hall Daily the technological and scien­ enjoyed by both the attending PHOTOGRAPHERS benefits accrued from both.