Stephen Hawking to receive award at Lisner Auditorium

Physicist Stephen Hawking will receive the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian Institution at Lisner Auditorium Monday.

The event will honor the 65-year-old distinguished physicist, who suffers from the neurological disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, with a retrospective look at his career in science. The ceremony will also feature remarks from Hawking, who has been a professor at Cambridge University in England since 1973.

Hawking, who is perhaps the world’s best-known scientist, is credited with acquainting the public with esoteric concepts such as black holes and the beginning of time. He is the author of several books, the most popular which is the bestseller “A Brief History of Time.”

The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal is awarded to individuals who have made achievements that have significantly impacted the Smithsonian Institution. Past recipients include George Lucas, Jim Henson, Walter Cronkite and Betty Ford.

The event, sponsored by The Smithsonian Associates, U.K. Science and Technology and the British Council USA, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $12 for students and $28 for general admission.

Business students named “Most Promising Minority Students”

The American Advertising Federation named two students in the School of Business among the “Most Promising Minority Students of 2005.”

Lynda Maddox, a marketing and advertising professor, nominated seniors Meena Patel and Rebecca Tasca Valle for the award after they completed her advertising class last fall, according to a GW statement.

The AAF is the oldest advertising trade association in the country. Patel and Valle were honored last week at a three-day event in New York.

French ambassador to discuss Marshall Plan

GW will host a discussion Tuesday with the French ambassador to the U.S. about the Marshall Plan, the strategy for distributing economic aid to European countries after World War II.

French ambassador Jean-David Levitte and the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Constance Morella, will discuss aspects of the 1947 Marshall Plan and how they can be applied to present-day political events.

The event, “What have we learned from the Marshall Plan?” is free and open to the public. It will take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Elliott School of International Affairs building.

-Caitlin Carroll