Jackson receives award
President Shirley Ann Jackson will receive the Vannevar Bush Award for 2007 from the National Science Board for a lifetime of achievements in scientific research, education, and senior statesman-like contributions to public policy.
Jackson is being granted this award in recognition of her leadership in the national movement to respond to the “quiet crisis”—in her words—of the science and engineering work force, in addition to her advocacy on global energy security, her role in the Renaissance at Rensselaer, and her innovations when she served as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1995 until 1999.
Chairman of the National Science Board Steven C. Beering said in a press release, “Shirley Ann Jackson has been a leader on many fronts, and she has incorporated scientific approaches into all of her work, especially on policy issues of international importance and in reforming one of the nation’s important educational institutions.”
The Vannevar Bush Award was established in 1980 to honor the unique contributions of a prominent World War II-era scientist and presidential adviser. The award is given annually and it recognizes an individual who, through public service activities in science and technology, has made an outstanding “contribution toward the welfare of mankind and the nation.”
Jackson will be honored by the National Science Foundation in an awards ceremony at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. on May 14.
New major announced
RPI recently announced the start of a new undergraduate program in Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS). This new major will give graduates a variety of skills that are necessary for leaders in the game development industry, and the program builds off the success of the game studies minor.
Students enrolled in the GSAS major will have access to Rensselaer’s cutting-edge research facilities, such as an immersive virtual reality and motion capture studio, a large 10-station networked PC room used to study social gaming, and finally, a lab set up with sofas, video games and consoles, a plasma television, and four miniature cameras. More reminiscent of a living room than a laboratory, the Games Research Suite allows researchers to track players’ faces and body movements as they play, combined with output from the television screen, in order to create a richer picture of the gaming experience for later analysis.
