Science Professors Win $500K Grants

Funding for research projects is notoriously scarce for junior science faculty at Harvard but at least two assistant professors do not have to worry about the problem.

The California-based Packard Foundation has awarded grants of $500,000 each to Daniel J. Jacob and Cumrun Vafa for research in their respective specialties of atmospherics and theoretical physics. The Packard grants are the largest in the nation given exclusively to junior faculty in the sciences.

Jacob, a member of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department said yesterday he plans to use the money to research the effects of human activity onthe composition of the atmosphere.

"My work focuses on developing conceptual andmathematical models to elucidate on the mechanismby which pollutants are emitted to the atmospheretransported transformed and eventually removed,"Jacob said.

Jacob said his research would provide newinsight into such problems as acid rain globalwarming and depletion of the ozone layer.

Vafa said he plans to use his grant for studyin a specialized branch of physics called stringtheory, which attempts to explain the underlyingstructure of the universe.

But with $500,000 he said, he is willing to begenerous.

"I would be glad to help my other colleagues ifthey have other areas that need particularemphasis," Vafa said.

Vafa said he would also like to use his grantto fund conferences and to hire more post-doctoralfellows in the Physics Department.

Jacob and Vafa were selected for the grantsfrom a pool of 100 applicants.

Each of the 50 schools participating in thePackard program named two candidates for thegrants and 20 winners were selected. The onlyother university to have both its nominees wingrants was the California Institute of Technology.

The Packard Fellowship is one of two grantsawarded exclusively to junior university facultyin the U.S. The other is the Presidential YoungInvestigator award, which is sponsored by theNational Science Foundation.

The money is given to the fellow universitiesin five annual $100,000 payments to fund theresearch described in their applications, saidAnnedore Kushner, program director