More news of Yale people

Terry Dagradi

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Honored

Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Joan Steitz (left) was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine in February for her decades of “ground-breaking discoveries on RNA processing and its function.” Steitz, who is also an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, shares the prize with Lynne Maquat of the University of Rochester and Adrian Krainer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The $100,000 prizes are awarded annually in several disciplines by the Wolf Foundation of Israel.  

Remembered

Frank Tirro, who led the School of Music as dean from 1980 to 1989, died on March 28. He was 85 years old. A composer, clarinetist, saxophonist, and musicologist, Tirro’s academic specialty was American jazz, which he helped bring into the mainstream of musicological study. He also studied late medieval and renaissance music. After his term as dean, he taught at Yale until his retirement in 2010.

Tso-Ping (T. P.) Ma ’74PhD, the Raymond J. Wean Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, died on April 6 at the age of 75. Ma, a leader in semiconductor research and technology, came to Yale from China for graduate school. He worked at IBM before joining the Yale faculty in 1977; he continued teaching until last fall. Known as a mentor to students and faculty, Ma was also a familiar presence on the ice at Ingalls Rink, where he was an avid figure skater.