NEWS OF THE WEEK ACS
MEETING
PARSONS AWARD TO ZAFRA LERMAN ACS selects internationally acclaimed educator, human rights activist
C
HEMIST ZAFRA M. LERMAN,
distinguished professor of science and public policy and head of the Institute for Science Education & Science Communication at Columbia College Chicago, has been selected by the ACS Board of Directors as the 2 0 0 3 recipient of the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award in recognition ofoutstanding public service to chemistry. T h e Parsons Award is named after the executive secretary who helped create today's ACS.
Lerman
"Zafra is known the world over as a superb science educator, and her activities related to the advancement of scientific freedom and human rights are legendary," says Nina I. McClelland, chair of the ACS Board "She perfectly personifies the meaning of outstanding public service." Born in Israel in 1937, Lerman received her B.S. and M.S. in chemistry at Tëchnion, the Israel Institute oflèchnology, in Haifa, and her Ph.D. in chemistry from Weizmann Institute of Science,
BANKRUPTCY
Arthur D. Little Consulting Firm Auctioned Off
A
rthur D. Little Inc. (ADD, founded in 1886 and claiming to be the world's first consulting firm, was sold off in pieces last week. Five buyers together spent more than $96 million to acquire its various business operations. Another $15 million to $20 million in assets are to be sold separately to pay creditors. A management buyout group funded by technology consulting firm Altran Technologies purchased two of the biggest pieces, along with the Arthur D. Little name. Charles River Associates, a financial and business consultancy, bought ADL's chemicals and energy practice for $7 million. ADL filed for voluntary reorganization under bankruptcy law in early February. De-
spite having annual revenues of about $500 million, the firm had incurred some significant one-time losses. Based in Cambridge, Mass., it employed about 2,000 people in 30 countries. The company is known for its technology consulting and research, conducted independently and collaboratively at its more than 100 laboratories. Its R&D efforts have led to the patent for the first synthetic penicillin, the invention and commercialization of fiberglass, the design of experiments for the first moon mission, and the creation of a nonhazardous decontaminant foam for neutralizing chemical and biological warfare agents. -ANN THAYER
COMPANY SOLD IN SEVERAL PIECES BUSINESS AREA Global Management Consulting and Eurasian Global Environment & Risk Technology & innovation Cambridge Consultants Chemicals & Energy Practice Public Sector Program Management Advanced Energy Systems Global Environment & Risk Americas
BUYER Management buyout/Altran Technologies TIAX LLC Management buyout/Altran Technologies Charles River Associates ICF Consulting Navigant Consulting ICF Consulting
PRICE PAID 1$ MILLION) $43.0 16.5 13.0
7.0 6.5 6.1 4.0
Rehovot. After carrying out research at Cornell University, Northwestern University, and Ε Τ Η Zurich, she joined Colum bia College in 1977 as director of the science program. In 1981, she cofounded and chaired the Department of Sci ence & Mathematics, where she continued to develop novel ap proaches to teaching science to nonscience majors, high school teachers and students, and the general public. For example, un der NSF sponsorship, she runs summer workshops on environ mental chemistry for 40 teach ers each year. She also has taught chemistry in the informal setting of a dance studio with minority students who learn chemistry through dance and then perform for the public. Her innovative education ac tivities have been recognized by numerous awards, including the 1999 Presidential Award for Ex cellence in Science, Mathemat ics & Engineering Mentoring, as well as the 1998 ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Stu dents into Careers in the Chem ical Sciences. Lerman is equally well-known in the human rights area, where she has worked tirelessly—and sometimes at great personal dan ger—to publicize the plight of dissident scientists in China, Be larus, and Russia. She has chaired the Human Rights Subcommit tee of the ACS Committee on In ternational Activities for more than 15 years. "She sees it as a responsibility, not a risk," says International Ac tivities Committee Chair William F. Carroll Jr., Occidental Chemi cal vice president of chlorovinyl issues. "I feel so honored and so ex cited," Lerman tells C&EN. "My mentor was Franklin A. Long of Cornell, who died last year. He received the Parsons Award in 1985, and it was his dream that I would someday receive it. So it has a double meaning for me." MADELEINE JACOBS
U
C&EN
/APRIL
15,
2002
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