AAS Recognizes Achievements

Each year, the American Astronomical Society presents several awards and prizes to individuals to acknowledge their contributions to astronomy. The recipients for 2002 are as follows.

The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, AAS’s highest honor, went to George Wallerstein, professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Washington, for his “contributions to our understanding of the abundances of the elements in stars and clusters.” The citation also noted that Wallerstein has served as a “notable teacher” whose students have had many significant accomplishments.

Eric Priest, James Gregory Professor of Mathematics and Wardlaw Professor at St. Andrew’s University, Scotland, received the George Ellery Hale Prize in honor of his “seminal contributions to investigations of the role of the magnetic field in solar activity, and for his tireless advocacy of solar physics in all corners of the world.”

The George Van Biesbroeck Prize went to Victor Blanco for his “outstanding service in building the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and in leading its scientific, technical, and support staff.” According to AAS, CTIO, under Blanco’s leadership, became the model for a national observatory. The citation added that his “diplomacy and personal warmth created a climate of cooperation that has made CTIO the prime example of a successful and productive international scientific organization.” Blanco, now retired, was director and staff astronomer at CTIO.

The Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, given jointly by AAS and the American Institute of Physics, was presented to J. Richard Bond, director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, to acknowledge his “pioneering research on the generation of microwave background fluctuations in the cold dark matter paradigm, the growth of these fluctuations, and the analysis of [cosmic microwave background] fluctuations as examples of outstanding work in the field of astrophysics.”

The Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize was shared by Geoffrey W. Marcy, professor of astronomy and director of the Center for Integrative Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley; R. Paul Butler, staff scientist with the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington; and Steven S. Vogt, astronomer and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCO/Lick Observatory and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The three cowinners were recognized for their “pioneering work in characterizing planetary systems orbiting distant stars.” According to the citation, approximately 60% of the planets now known outside our Solar System were discovered by the three recipients and their collaborators.

Leon Van Speybroeck was presented with the Bruno Rossi Prize for his “singular contribution to high-energy astrophysics leading to the exquisite image quality produced by the x-ray optics and telescope of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.” He is a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The inaugural Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation went to James E. Gunn, Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University. He was cited for his “outstanding contributions to astronomical instrumentation which have influenced the development of instruments on major telescopes worldwide.”

Adam Riess was the recipient of the Helen B. Warner Prize for his “significant contribution toward measuring cosmological distances unimaginable a decade ago through the study of Sne Ia and for the astonishing discovery of the acceleration of the universe and a nonzero cosmological constant.” He is an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and an adjunct associate professor of astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, both located in Baltimore, Maryland.

Amy J. Barger, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize for her “outstanding achievement in observational cosmology using data from x-ray through radio wavelengths to explore previously unknown populations of distant galaxies, giving a view of galaxies early in the history of the universe and showing that they are major contributors to the extragalactic background.”

Michael Zeilik, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico, received AAS’s Education Prize for his work as an innovator in the field of astronomy education. Zeilik was cited for, among other things, his tireless championing of teaching strategies that go beyond the usual lecture. The citation also stated that the “research which he has done on the success of, or challenges faced by, these strategies has provided a major contribution to our understanding of student learning.”

The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize went to Eberhard Gruen for his “discovery of interstellar grains passing through the solar system; the discovery of Jovian dust streams in interplanetary space; and major insights into the time evolution of the meteoritic complex by combining impact microcrater data from lunar rocks, spacecraft meteoroid penetration and impact ionization data, and photographic and radar meteor data.” He is a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, and a researcher at the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.

Heidi Hammel, senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, received the Carl Sagan Medal. According to the citation, her “dedication to communicating the excitement of planetary science is evident in the large number of lectures to children and the general public that have complemented her scientific career.”

The Harold C. Urey Prize went to Brett J. Gladman for his “studies of orbital evolution combining numerical and analytical results to elucidate the dynamical structure of the solar system.” The citation added that his “extensive simulations of the orbital evolution of meteorites from the Moon, Mars, and the main asteroid belt have fundamentally altered our understanding of the delivery paths of these objects.” He is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of British Columbia in Canada and a research scientist at CNRS.

AAS also presented two popular science writing awards. This year’s journalist award was shared by Ron Cowen and Sid Perkins, both writers for Science News . Cowen wrote “Stormy Weather” and Perkins wrote “Pinning Down the Sun–Climate Connection” as a two-part series that appeared in the January 2001 Science News , volume 159, on pages 26 and 45, respectively.

The corecipients of the scientist writing award were Carolus J. Schrijver and Alan M. Title. They were recognized for their two-part article “Today’s Science of the Sun,” which appeared in the February and March 2001 issues of Sky and Telescope . Schrijver is a staff physicist and Title is a principal scientist at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California.