Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Torrijos Herrera, Omar ōmärˈ tōrēˈhōs ārāˈrä [key], 1929–81, military leader, dictator of Panama (1968–78). As a lieutenant colonel, he led, together with Col. Boris Martínez, the coup...

(Encyclopedia) Gardner, Isabella Stewart, 1840–1924, American art collector, b. New York City. She lived in Boston following her marriage to the financier Jack Gardner. After the Civil War her home became known fo...

(Encyclopedia) Deisenhofer, Johann dīˈzənhōˌfər [key], 1943–, German chemist, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, 1974. He was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute until 1987 when he joined the ...

(Encyclopedia) Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin or Baroness von änĕtˈə ālēˈzäbĕt frīˈĭn fən drôsˈtə-hülsˈhôf [key], 1797–1848, German poet. Often called the greatest German woman poet...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, James, 1836–1920, American agriculturist and cabinet officer, b. Ayrshire, Scotland. He emigrated to the United States and settled (1851) in Connecticut, later moving (1855) to Tama co., Iow...

(Encyclopedia) Peace Corps, agency of the U.S. government, whose purpose is to assist underdeveloped countries in meeting their needs for trained manpower. The Peace Corps was established in 1961 by executive order ...

(Encyclopedia) Parrish, Maxfield, 1870–1966, American painter and illustrator, b. Philadelphia; pupil of Howard Pyle. He is known for his original and highly decorative posters, magazine covers, and book illustrat...

(Encyclopedia) MacKinnon, Roderick, 1956–, American biochemist, b. Burlington, Mass., M.D. Tufts Univ., 1982. MacKinnon was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School from 1989–96 and has been a professor at the H...

(Encyclopedia) Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph, 1943–, American physician, b. New York City, M.D. Columbia, 1966. Since 1973 Lefkowitz has been a professor at Duke Univ.; he was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institut...

(Encyclopedia) Cech, Thomas Robert chĕk [key], 1947–, American microbiologist, b. Chicago, grad. Univ. of California, Berkeley. A professor at the Univ. of Colorado, he discovered that RNA could function as enzym...