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Appoin tmen ts and Awards

Maarten Chrlspeels, University of California at San Diego, has been awarded the Stephen Hales Prize of the American Society of Plant Physiologists.

William A. Cramer, Purdue University, has received the Charles F. Kettering Award for Excellence in Photosynthesis.

Ron Mittler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Plant Sciences at the Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Obituaries

Jacobo Cardenas 1940-1996

The sudden death of Jacobo Cardenas on 28 October 1996 at the age of 56 has shocked and moved his Spanish colleagues. His contributions to the development of plant biochemistry and molecular biology in Spain are remarkable. Since the early 1970s he contributed to our understand- ing of the biochemistry and physiology of nitrate assimilation in plants. He also made significant contributions to photosynthetic aspects of nitrate assimilation and to the understanding of nitrate assimilation in photosynthetic bacteria. In addition, he introduced the use of Chlamy- domonas mutants to the study of the pathway of nitrate assimilation in plants, and, using the same system, he was also a pioneer in characteriz- ing purine and amino acid metabolism. Recently, he had become an eager defender of molecular biological approaches to the study of plant biology, and successfully developed new lines of research on the matu- ration of strawberry fruits and of ureide metabolism in legume plants. He was also a humanist of science, interested in ethical aspects of the scientific activity. A long list of disciples are indebted to him for his motivated dedication, not only to science, but also to the training and the future of new generations of scientists.

--Emilio Fernandez E-mail: bblferee@uco.es

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty of Sciences, University of Cordoba

14071-Cordoba, Spain