Brooklyn College faculty have recently published award-winning books.

Francisco Ayala ,distinguished professor emeritus of modern languages and lit-eratures, received the 1992 Premio Cervantes, the most prestigious Hispanic literary prize.

Henry Friedlander, professor of Judaic studies, received an award in 1996 from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for The Origins of Nazi Geno-cide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution.

Margaret L. King, professor of history, received the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize for 1996 for The Death of the Child Valerio Marcello. With this prize, the American Historical Association recognizes the best work on any epoch of Italian history.

Teofilo Ruiz, professor of history, received the 1995 Premio del Rey for Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile. The American Historical Association awards this prize to the best book on the history of Spain published in the past two years.

Robert Viscusi, professor of English, received the 1996 American Book Award for his novel, Astoria. The award, given by the Before Columbus Foundation, recognizes contemporary American multicultural literature.

Under the aegis of the Applied Sciences Institute, in 1992 the college opened research centers in Applied Vision, headed by Acting Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Psychology Louise Hainline and Professor of Psychology Israel Abramov; Neural and Intelligent Systems, led by Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science Theodore Raphan; and Reproductive Endocrinology, headed by Distinguished Professor of Biology Martin P. Schreibman, ’56.

In 1996, there was major construction and upgrading of scientific research laboratories to house new research equipment funded by the Higher Education Applied Technology Program, the Center for Applied Technology, and the Graduate Research Initiative.

The School of Education received two major, multiyear grants from the National Science Foundation of $5 million in 1995 for the New York Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation, directed by Professor Rosamond Welchman-Tischler, and $225,000 in 1994 for the Science in the Seamless Day Program, directed by Professor Paul Jablon.

To help students take a fresh look at their assumptions, Professor of Physics Peter Brancazio, with a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, developed an innovative course, Science and Religion.

Lynda Day, assistant professor of Africana studies, received a grant for her studies of female chieftaincy in nineteenth-century Sierra Leone and is currently working on a study of the feminist movement there. In 1992, she received the Governor’s Award for African Americans of Achievement.

Professor of Classics Dee Clayman, assisted by an international team of scholars, is developing a classics database that will convert to CD-ROM the more than sixty-three volumes of the Année philologique, the most extensive bibliography of books and articles about ancient Greece and Rome. Professor Clayman’s work will enable historians, classicists, and philosophers to conduct extensive database searches.

Brooklyn College sponsors academic conferences that continue to be on the leading edge of intellectual and social exploration. In the past four years they have included the following:

Bilingualism: Sociolinguistic, Psycholinguistic, and Applied Linguistic Perspectives, 1993.

Communities of Scholars, a Brooklyn College 2000 conference on academic scholarship, 1993.

Composing Black, conference on African and African-American traditions in music, 1995.

Educational Empowerment of Minority Youth: Perspectives for the 21st Century, 1995.

Intergroup Relations and Community Cooperation: Bensonhurst in Transition, 1996.

Japanese Culture, 1996.

Jews and Judeo Converts of Spain at the Time of the Expulsion in 1492, 1992.

New Latino Visions Theater Festival, 1994.

Transitions: Language, Institution, Culture, a Freshman Year College conference, 1996.

Writing Lives, symposium on biography and autobiography, 1993. Speakers from the arts, sciences, politics, religion, and humanities share their passions and points of view with students and faculty.