Romnes Early-Career Awards go to five UW professors

Five faculty have received 2002 Romnes Fellowships, a program that helps younger faculty further establish their scholarly careers.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation supports the $50,000 fellowships. A committee of the UW–Madison Graduate School chooses the recipients. The Romnes award recognizes an exceptional faculty member who has attained tenure within the prior four years.

The awards are named after the late H.I. Romnes, former chair of the board of AT&T and former president of the WARF Board of Trustees. This year’s winners are:

• Craig W. Berridge, associate professor, psychology, studies the neurochemical regulation of behavior, particularly in the area of stress and arousal. His groundbreaking work provides critical insight into the actions of brain neurotransmitters targeted by drugs used in the treatment of cognitive and affective disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, narcolepsy and depression. In addition to his acclaimed research, Berridge participates in undergraduate and graduate training, and in university service.
• Emery H. Bresnick, associate professor, pharmacology. Bresnick has developed a world-class research program on elucidating physiological mechanisms that control gene transcription in the context of chromosome segments, termed domains. Bresnick has also made important discoveries on how intercellular communication results in changes in gene activity that control the development of complex organisms. Bresnick also serves as an editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a member of the National Institutes of Health Hematology II Study Section, and a member of the ASPET Graduate Education Committee. Bresnick plays leading roles on university committees, and teaches medical, graduate and undergraduate students.
• Harry Brighouse, professor, philosophy, has been working on the foundations of liberalism, including questions such as whether the state should subsidize the arts, and what is the relationship between individual liberties and democratic rights. He has written extensively on the principles that should guide education policy, and especially on the justifications of school choice.
• Brian G. Fox, associate professor, biochemistry, is interested in biological reactions typically considered to be “chemically difficulty” by virtue of energetics, stereochemistry or environmental considerations. The goal of their research is to understand, at the molecular level, the key aspects of protein structure and protein-protein interactions that control catalysis. They use a diverse set of approaches, which matches well with his primary teaching responsibility in Biochemistry 651, Biochemical Methods. Fox also participates in the universitywide Conflict of Interest Committee, and in the administration and governance of the Biophysics Degree Program and the Biotechnology and the Molecular Biophysics Training Grants.
• Ken Ono, professor, mathematics, in theoretical number theory. He is well-known for his contributions to the theory of elliptic curves, modular forms and partitions. He has proven a variety of theorems regarding the solvability of Diophantine equations, like those appearing in Fermat’s Last Theorem. He has also proven striking theorems extending historical works of Erdos and Ramanujan on the divisibility of partition functions. In addition to his research, Ono is active in educational outreach. For example, he played a central role in the National Science Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Celebration by giving many guest lectures with Physics Nobel Laureates Leon Lederman and Russel Hulse. Since completing his Ph.D. in 1993, he has won numerous awards including a Presidential Early Career Award from President Clinton. Ono is advising five Ph.D. students and two postdoctoral researchers.