Hydrology professor earns national honors for models

Soroosh Sorooshian, regents professor in Hydrology and Water Resources, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Sorooshian was named to NAE for his work on developing flood-forecasting models that are used worldwide.

Election to NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions for an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made important contributions to engineering theory and practice.

He is one of 77 new members and nine foreign associates who were elected to NAE on Feb. 14. This brings the total U.S. membership to 2,138 and the number of foreign associates to 165. Sorooshian is the eighth NAE member among the current University of Arizona faculty.

Trauma team's new surgeon will focus on telemedicine

Rifat Latifi has joined the University of Arizona department of surgery as associate professor of clinical surgery and director of University Medical Center surgical critical care.

In addition to his trauma and general surgery responsibilities, Dr. Latifi will collaborate with the Arizona Telemedicine Program to create a telemedicine trauma and surgery program. This program will enable surgeons from UMC to assist physicians in emergency and operating rooms in rural areas in Arizona using telemedicine technology. Latifi comes to UA from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia.

Dr. Latifi specializes in trauma, general surgery and critical care with special interest in reoperative surgery, advanced laparoscopic surgery, and nutrition support of surgery and critically ill patients.

UA researcher discovers, names two minor planets

A UA researcher who discovered two minor planets has had their official names approved.

Joe Montani of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory discovered the two objects on Jan.2 and Jan. 3, 1997. They are now officially named "Manhattan" and "Perth Amboy."

Montani, a native of Perth Amboy, N.J., said he named one of his recent asteroid discoveries for his hometown because it was there that he learned amateur astronomy and began making homemade telescopes.

Montani named the other minor planet, Manhattan, in honor of the World Trade Center towers and his years spent at Columbia University. Montani has named 15 of his minor planet discoveries so far. These include asteroids named for scientists, artists, musicians, among them American lyric poet Allen Ginsberg, American jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk, and Navajo-Ute musician R. Carlos Nakai.