Professors Receive Science Award

Harvard professors Nalini Ambady and Brian D. Dynlacht have been named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), an award given to 60 young researchers nationwide.

Now in its third year, the PECASE is awarded by the White House Office of Science and Technology to scientists beginning their research careers.

Ambady, an assistant professor of psychology, was awarded for her "fundamental contributions to understanding accuracy of social judgments based on 'thin slices' of information," according to Janet Rutledge of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The NSF, which partially funds Ambady's research, recently gave her a Faculty Early Career Development award.

Ambady said the award was an advance for all social science researchers, because they are not often recognized by the NSF.

"Of the 60 PECASE and over 300 Career [award] winners, I was the only social scientist," said Ambady. She will receive a five-year grant of $500,000, which she said she plans to use to extend her NSF research and to branch out.

Dynlacht, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology, has spent much of his research on "the role of gene expression in the control of cell growth and proliferation."

Dynlacht, who is now supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will receive an extension of his current grant.

Both Dynlacht and Ambady were selected from a pool of 1,122 applicants nationwide.

"These are the Golden Globe Awards for the Albert Einsteins and Marie Curies of tomorrow," NSF director Rita Colwell said.