The American Astronomical Society has announced several of its award winners for 2003.
The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship will go to George W. Wetherill, director emeritus of the department of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The award citation reads, in part, “One of the truly original thinkers in planetary astronomy, George Wetherill pioneered the application of modern physics and numerical simulations to the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets.” The citation goes on to state that his “geochronology concepts underpin all astronomical radiometric dates. He and his colleagues took the lead in experimental and theoretical studies demonstrating that the meteorites and some Moon rocks are at least as old as the oldest Earth rocks, thereby establishing the first radio-metric chronology for the inner solar system. Through pioneering applications of numerical and analytical simulations, he demonstrated that runaway accretion can account for the assemblage of planetesimals into...