The National Academy of Sciences has announced that 18 individuals will win awards for their contributions to science, including 10 who are involved in the physical sciences. NAS will present the awards during its annual meeting in Washington, DC, at the end of this month.
John I. Brauman will be honored with the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for “his wide-ranging contributions to the fundamental understanding of chemical reactivity, especially the acid–base, nucleophilic, and hydrogen-bonding properties of ions and molecules,” according to the citation. Brauman is J. G. Jackson and C. J. Wood Professor of Chemistry and associate dean of the school of humanities and sciences at Stanford University. A cash prize of $20 000 and a medal accompany the award, which is handed out annually.
Two scientists will share the Henry Draper Medal, which is awarded every four years. R. Paul Butler and Geoffrey W. Marcy will be recognized for “their pioneering investigations of planets orbiting other stars via high-precision radial velocities. They have proved that many other planetary systems exist in the universe.” Butler is a staff scientist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, DC. Marcy is a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. They will share the cash prize of $15 000 and each will receive a medal.
Milton W. Cole, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University, will receive the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing, which is given out annually. He is being cited for “his valued reviews and a monograph, which have critically assessed and inspired novel research concerning electrons and films at surfaces.” He will receive a cash prize of $10 000.
The Alexander Agassiz Medal, a prize that is awarded every three years, will go to Charles S. Cox, professor emeritus of physical oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Cox was chosen for “his pioneering studies, both theoretical and instrumental, of oceanic waves, microstructure and mixing, and of electromagnetic fields in the ocean and in the seafloor.” He will receive a medal and a cash award of $15 000.
David J. DeRosier will receive the Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics for “his development of three-dimensional image reconstruction methods, which have revolutionized electron microscopy of subcellular structures, and his analytical visualization of cellular motility mechanisms.” He is a professor of biology, Abraham S. and Gertrude Burg Chair of Life Sciences, and director of the W. M. Keck Institute for Cellular Visualization at the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. The award, which is presented every three years, carries a cash prize of $20 000.
The NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society, which is presented every two years, will go to Paul C. Lauterbur for “his research on nuclear magnetic resonance and its applications in chemistry and medicine, and his contributions to the development of magnetic resonance imaging in medicine.” He is a research professor of radiology, Center for Advanced Study Professor of Chemistry, and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He will receive a $20 000 cash prize.
Robert J. Lefkowitz will receive the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal for “his elucidation of the structure, function, and mechanism of regulation of heptahelical receptors, nature’s detectors of signals from many hormones, neurotransmitters, and drugs.” Lefkowitz is an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and of Biochemistry at the Duke University Medical Center. This award, which is handed out every three years, comes with a medal and a cash prize of $25 000.
Erin K. O’Shea, an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, and an assistant investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, will be honored with the annual NAS Award in Molecular Biology. She is being cited for “contributions to our understanding of signal transduction, regulation of protein movement into and out of the nucleus, and how phosphorylation controls protein activity.” She will receive a medal and a cash prize of $25 000.
The James Craig Watson Medal will be given to David T. Wilkinson, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University, for “elegant precision measurements by Wilkinson, his students, and their students, of universal radiation that is close to the blackbody yet wonderfully rich in evidence of cosmic evolution.” The award, which is presented every three years, is accompanied by a medal and a cash prize of $25 000.
