Franklin Institute Bestows Awards

The Franklin Institute has given out awards to 10 scientists, educators, and businessmen in recognition of innovative work that has benefited humanity, advanced science, launched new fields of inquiry, and deepened our understanding of the universe. The Philadelphia-based institute has been bestowing the honors, considered among the most prestigious in science, for 182 years. Of this year’s winners, five are involved in physics-related work.

Giacinto Scoles, Donner Professor of Science at Princeton University and a professor in the biophysics and condensed matter physics departments at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati in Trieste, Italy, and J. Peter Toennies, associate professor in the physics department at the University of Göttingen in Göttingen, Germany, are the corecipients of the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics. They are receiving the award, according to the citation, “for the development of new techniques for studying molecules, including unstable species that could not be examined otherwise, by embedding them in extremely small and ultra-cold droplets of helium. Their work also led to a better understanding of the extraordinary properties of superfluid helium, such as its ability to flow without friction.”

The late Luna B. Leopold, professor emeritus in the geology and geophysics department and the landscape architecture department at the University of California, Berkeley, and M. Gordon Wolman, B. Howell Griswold Jr Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, are joint recipients of the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science “for advancing our understanding of how natural and human activities influence landscapes, especially for the first comprehensive explanation of why rivers have different forms and how floodplains develop. Their contributions form the basis of modern water resource management and environmental assessment.”

The 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering is being handed out to Ray W. Clough, professor emeritus in the civil engineering department at UC Berkeley, “for revolutionizing engineering and scientific computation and engineering design methods through his formulation and development of the finite element method, and for his innovative leadership in applying the method to the field of earthquake engineering with special emphasis on the seismic performance of dams.”

Awards were distributed during an April ceremony in Philadelphia.