APPOINTED

Aimée Dorr, education professor and dean of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, has been appointed as guest professor for 2002-07 by the president of Beijing Normal University. She plans to teach classes there sometime in the near future.... Karim Cherif has been appointed director of UCLA Extension’s Business and Management Department. Cherif has been a continuing education specialist at Extension since 1991, overseeing nearly 1,000 courses, conferences and events for more than 11,000 enrollees.... Jane Kagon is the new director of UCLA Extension’s Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts Department.

HONORS

Two researchers from the Jonsson Cancer Center were recognized for their research efforts at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Patricia Ganz, director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, had previously received a $300,000 grant from the American Cancer Society for her work in enhancing outcomes for cancer patients, while Rose Maly, an assistant professor of family medicine, had previously received $2.2 million in funding to improve quality of life for underserved breast cancer patients. At the Relay for Life, both were presented with symbolic checks representing the grants.... Harvey Herschman received the Israel Cancer Research Fund’s inaugural Excellence in Cancer Research Award for his work to improve cancer treatment. Also honored by the fund was Hillel Laks, founder and director of the UCLA Heart-Lung Transplant Program. Laks received the Irwin M. Weinstein Excellence in Medicine Award.... Walter R. Allen, professor of sociology and African-American studies, received the Special Merit Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education for his valuable research contributions.

LAURELS

On the occasion of the opening of “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal,” director Marla Berns, on behalf of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, received a special commendation from Gov. Gray Davis. The museum was recognized for 40 years of creative and socially relevant exhibitions that enhance understanding and appreciation of the diverse peoples, cultures, arts and religions of the world. This year the Fowler celebrates its 10/40 anniversary year — 10 years in its facility and 40 years in existence.

IN MEMORIAM

Rainer Berger, professor emeritus of geophysics, geology and anthropology and a pioneer in carbon-14 dating, died on Jan. 8 in Le Vignau, France. He was 72.

Born on July 3, 1930, in Graz, Austria, Berger came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar in 1955 and graduated with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1960. In 1963, he accepted a position as research professor at UCLA to assist in the installation of carbon-14 preparation and counting equipment. This was one of the first such systems in the world for conducting age-dating of organic material extending back 40,000 years.

In the late ’60s, Berger was a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Fellow and a National Science Foundation Fellow. In 1968, he received the Distinguished Service Award at UCLA. The following year Berger completed his Guggenheim fellowship and joined the departments of History, Anthropology and Geography. Berger retired in 1994 but still maintained operation of the Radiocarbon and Archaeometry Laboratory at UCLA.