Smithsonian honor

Three scientists who played prominent roles in the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year have been awarded the Thomas Hodgkins Prize for atmospheric research of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Gold medals and $3000 honoraria were presented to Joseph Kaplan, professor of physics at the University of California at Los Angeles and Sydney Chapman of the University of Alaska, during the Smithsonian Observatory's 75th anniversary celebration, held in Cambridge, Mass., in August, Marcel Nicolet, head of the National Center for Space Research in Brussels, received the prize in absentia. This was the first Hodgkins Gold Medal award in 63 years, the earlier ones having been conferred upon James Dewar in 1899 and upon J. J. Thomson in 1902.