Awards

On Friday afternoon, while most students were hauling away their things and leaving campus, members of the Columbia baseball team were hauling in some prestigious postseason accolades.

On Tuesday morning, three Columbia professors received phone calls telling them they had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences—yet none had the slightest idea as to why. Earth and environmental sciences professor Paul Olsen, biology professor Carol Prives, and genetics and development professor Gary Struhl are three of 72 members appointed this year to the 150-year-old academy, which organizes committees of distinguished researchers to perform studies enhancing the country’s health, education, and welfare.

Although the roughly 100 attendees at Friday night’s Black Alumni Council Heritage Award Reception were diverse in age, pride in both school and legacy gave them common ground to celebrate their peers and the announcement of the first chaired faculty position of African-American studies at Columbia.

In the third year of the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences upped its quota of honorees from 10 to 11 at a Jan. 29 ceremony due to an exceptional pool of candidates.

Columbia University’s Morningside and Medical Center campuses will each receive $1 million from the state of New York as part of an initiative that grants New York institutions $14.5 million in funds for stem cell-related research.