Electrical Engineering Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii, who chairs the department, was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in physics from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Spain for his work in electromagnetics and human/antenna interactions, an area currently under intense scrutiny focusing on the effects of cellular telephone use on human health.... The Warren Alpert Foundation, associated with Harvard Medical School, recently presented Owen Witte of UCLA and four other researchers with a national award for their discoveries at the basic science, pre-clinical or clinical levels that collectively gave rise to a promising new treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia. Witte is a researcher at the Jonsson Cancer Center, an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics. A $150,000 honorarium was also awarded Witte and his colleagues, including David Baltimore, president of CalTech and professor of biology; Nicholas Lydon of Amgen, Inc.; Alex Matter of Novartis Pharma AG; and Brian Druker of Oregon Health Sciences University.... The American Pediatric Society has honored Delbert A. Fisher, member of the Board of Directors at Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute, with the John Howland Award, the organization's highest honor. Fisher's research has had a global impact on the understanding of human endocrine physiology during fetal development.

Professor Joaquin M. Fuster of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute received the Fyssen International Prize in Paris for his accomplishments in physiology and neuropsychology of the frontal lobes of the brain, especially in cognitive function. The aim of the Fyssen Foundation, named after its founder, French businessman A.H. Fyssen, is to encourage all forms of scientific inquiry into cognitive mechanisms - including thought and reasoning - that underlie animal and human behavior.... Melinda Morgan was awarded the Young Investigator grant by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. Morgan, a lecturer in the Department of Social Welfare in the School of Public Policy and Social Research, will use the $60,000 toward her study of the effects of estrogen therapy on mood and quality of life in postmenopausal women.... The Before Columbus Foundation of Chicago has chosen Russell Leong, an adjunct professor in the Department of English, to receive the American Book Award for 2001 for his book, "Phoenix Eye and Other Short Stories." The book has also been recognized by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 106 most outstanding works of fiction of 2000. Leong is senior editor of the Amerasia Journal of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center (AASC), and also coordinates the AASC Press.... Administrative Information Systems (AIS) named Jack Woon, security administrator on the Access Services Team, as this year's winner of the Wayne F. English Customer Service Award for excellence in customer service to AIS' client community. The award is named after English, an AIS employee who died of a heart attack.