AAAS Gives Out Awards

The American Association for the Advancement of Science presented its 2003 awards at the association’s annual meeting this past February in Seattle, Washington, to recognize the achievements of scientists, engineers, and journalists.

Among the recipients was Norman Neureiter, who received the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize for his “substantial contributions in building more effective relationships between the diplomatic and the scientific communities and in increasing both communities’ awareness of the importance of science and its value in international statecraft.” Last September, Neureiter completed a three-year term at the US State Department as the first Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary (see Physics Today, September 2003, page 32 ). In May of this year, he joined the AAAS’s center for Science, Technology and Security Policy as its new director.

The AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology went to John Allen Paulos for his “substantial contributions in promoting the pleasures of mathematics to large audiences.” Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Michael F. Summers won the AAAS Mentor Award for his “contributions in mentoring students from underrepresented groups and leadership in promoting PhD careers for underrepresented groups in science and engineering.” Summers is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a professor of chemistry at UMBC.

The AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement was garnered by Carlos G. Gutiérrez, professor of chemistry at California State University, Los Angeles. The AAAS honored him for his “substantial contributions in mentoring students from under-represented groups and leadership in promoting PhD careers for under-represented groups in chemistry and the biosciences.”

Science correspondent David Kestenbaum of National Public Radio received the AAAS Science Journalism Award in the radio category for a program called “Experiment Attempts to Detect Gravity Waves,” which aired on 16 September 2002. Says the AAAS, he “narrated a lively account of the experiment, explaining the science of gravity waves and making a difficult topic understandable. He captured on radio what might have seemed impossible to convey without images.”