J. Kim Vandiver ’68 has been selected as a recipient of the HMCAA Outstanding Alumni Award for going above and beyond the requirements as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kim is dean for undergraduate research, director of the Edgerton Center and director of MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which involves 80 percent of MIT’s undergraduate students in research projects with MIT research staff and faculty. In 1992 he founded MIT’s Edgerton Center, which provides resources for MIT students engaged in hands-on educational projects. The center also runs a K–12 outreach program for local teachers and their classrooms.

Throughout his teaching career, Kim has stressed the importance of hands-on learning. He has worked to enliven the mainstream curriculum, incorporating more and earlier opportunities for students to solve real-life problems, engage in research and develop relationships with faculty. In 1998, he was the recipient of the MIT President’s Award for Community Service for the Edgerton Center’s work with the Cambridge Public Schools.

A member of the Ocean Engineering Department (now Mechanical Engin-eering) faculty since 1975, Kim chaired MIT’s faculty from 1991 until 1993. His research focuses on the dynamics of offshore structures and flow-induced vibration, and he teaches dynamics and mechanical vibration at the graduate and undergraduate level. In 2001, he was honored as a MacVicar Fellow for excellence in teaching.

In addition to his academic awards, Kim is a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, a service award of the Boy Scouts of America. It is awarded to an Eagle Scout for distinguished service in his profession and to his community for a period of at least 25 years after attaining the level of Eagle Scout. Two percent of Boy Scouts achieve Eagle rank, and only one out of 1,000 Eagle Scouts receive the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

After earning his B.S. in engineering from HMC, Kim went on to earn an M.S. in ocean engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in oceanographic engineering from the MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. He started as a professor of ocean engineering at MIT in 1975, and in 1993 also took on the role of dean of undergraduate engineering. He is a registered mechanical engineer in the state of Massachusetts and is an active consultant in structural dynamics with the offshore engineering industry.

A certified flight instructor for gliders, Kim is a graduate of HMC’s Bates Aeronautical program. He returns often to Claremont to visit Professor Emerita Iris Critchell and her husband, Howard. Kim recently remarked, “The Bates experience added to my self confidence, which influenced my ability to take on leadership positions.”

Kim’s interests also include Schlieren photography, a visual process that is used to photograph the flow of fluids of varying density. He’ll share his knowledge on the subject during a presentation at Alumni College on Friday, May 2.

Most notable as producer of James Bond movies, and, perhaps not quite so well known as a leading expert on 19th-century photography, Michael Wilson ’63 was selected to receive the HMC Alumni Association’s Outstanding Alumni Award. He is being recognized for his global contributions—his work in education, the environment, the arts and philanthropy.

Michael has been philanthropically involved with numerous educational institutions, including The Claremont Colleges. Additionally, he is the chairman of the National Media Museum in Bradford, UK; was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) earlier this year, together with his sister Barbara Broccoli; and was re-appointed in February to the Board of the National Museum of Science and Industry in the UK for a period of four years.

In May 2005, Michael spoke to the commencement crowd about “Public Engagement with Science and the Role of Censorship.” In his address, he warned graduates not to allow their own passionately held views to “cause you to call for censorship when you hear something with which you disagree.” He also called censorship “the greatest impediment to public dialogue on any subject.” This was his second time presenting an HMC Commencement address; he also addressed the Class of 1985.

Michael earned his B.S. in engineering from HMC and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. He worked for the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., before joining the law firm of Surrey and Morse, where he specialized in international tax and business transactions. In 1972, he became a partner in the firm. He left in 1974 to join Eon Productions Limited, eventually becoming executive producer of three James Bond films, then going on to co-write or co-produce a number of other Bond films. Most recently he produced, with his sister Barbara Broccoli, the four Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan, and the latest “Casino Royal” starring Daniel Craig.

Michael is recognized as a leading expert on 19th-century photography, which he began collecting in the late 1970s. His first acquisitions focused on 19th-century travel and fine art photography. He is the author of “Pictorialism in California: Photo-graphs” (Getty Huntington, 1995), which was named Photography Book of the Year by The Art Newspaper. He has taught the history of photography in the University of California system and at the Royal College of Art in London. He is the chairman of the National Media Museum, formerly the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television, in Bradford and resides in London most of the year.

In 1998, Michael formed the Wilson Centre for Photography (WCP), an archive for the preservation of early photographs and for study and research on the history and aesthetics of photography. The WCP lends photographs for exhibitions at international museums and galleries and offers courses and seminars on photography. As part of Alumni College on Friday, May 2, Michael will share some of his extensive knowledge about the various movements and trends in contemporary photography.