The University Record, February 25, 1997

Three faculty members receive emeritus title

Three faculty members were given the emeritus title by the Regents at their February meeting.

Those retiring are Doris D. Mahony, associate librarian; Alfred L. Nuttall, professor of otorhinolaryngology; and Daniel Sinclair, professor of physics.

Doris D. Mahony
Mahony joined the Alfred Taubman Medical Library in 1976. "Her extensive knowledge of the basic sciences enabled Mahony to be an especially effective medical reference librarian," the Regents said. "Ms. Mahony served as the liaison to the College of Pharmacy and worked on the development of the pharmacy collection within the library. Her wide-ranging skills also led to temporary assignments as acting head of interlibrary loan and as assistant dentistry librarian. She is known for her commitment to users, her flexibilityand willingness to do whatever tasks needed to be done, and her consistent dedication to excellence."

Alfred L. Nuttall
Nuttall joined the faculty in 1964. "His creativity, persistence, and motivation led to the development of major new technological advances for intravital microscopy studies of the inner ear, which allowed the application of image enhancement and computerized analysis of inner ear blood flow," the Regents said. "His studies have identified major neural systems that control inner ear blood flow, and have led to new treatment regimes to improve inner ear blood flow and to prevent vascular-based sensorineural hearing loss. Prof. Nuttall also developed the technology of intracellular recording in outer hair cells of the inner ear, as well as new systems for analysis of the active micromechanical characteristics of the inner ear."

Daniel Sinclair
Sinclair joined the faculty in 1957. "In the 1980s, he was a founder of the IMB collaboration, which built a detector in a salt mine near Cleveland to search for proton decay. No proton decay was seen, which was a significant result, and the experiment established important lower limits to the proton lifetime. In February 1987, the IMB detector observed signals from the interaction of neutrinos from the 1987A Supernova, and in 1989 Prof. Sinclair was a co-winner of the Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society. The detection of neutrinos, one of the outstanding astrophysical observations of recent years, was the first observation of anything other than electromagnetic radiation from a source outside the solar system, yielding the first experimental confirmation of the theory of supernova production and stellar collapse."