In Brief

This month, the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan, which is based in Tokyo, awarded the Japan Prizes to two scientists, one of whom works in a physics-related field. John B. Goodenough, Virginia H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, was acknowledged for his “discovery of environmentally benign electrode materials for high-energy density rechargeable lithium batteries,” according to the foundation. He received a cash prize of ¥50 million (about $432 000).

In February, the Royal Society honored David Sherrington as the presenter of the 2001 Bakerian Lecture, the society’s premier annual prize lecture in the physical sciences, given under the title “Magnets, Microchips, Memories and Markets: The Statistical Physics of Complex Systems.” Sherrington is Wykeham Professor of Physics and Head of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, and a fellow of the Royal Society.

The Heinz Family Foundation in Pittsburgh announced the winners of the five Heinz Awards in February. Of those awards, two are related to the physical sciences. The Heinz Award for Public Policy went to John Holdren, Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard University. According to a foundation spokesperson, Holdren was honored for “the significant role he has played over the years in such complex issues as arms control, global energy resources, and sustainable development. A rare scholar who inspires colleagues, students, and world leaders alike, he has participated in the formation of public policy at the highest levels.” The Heinz Award for the Environment was given to James Hansen for showing “exemplary courage and leadership by going public with his concerns over the threat of global climate change. His dogged pursuit of this pressing problem has attracted supporters as well as critics, and he continues to serve as a lightning rod in this often-contentious debate.” Hansen is head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Each recipient received a medallion and a cash prize of $250 000.

The National Academy of Sciences has elected James Langer as its new vice president for a term running July 2001 through June 2005. Langer is a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and immediate past president of the American Physical Society.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada awarded its first Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering to Howard Alper last December. Alper, a professor of chemistry and vice-rector of research at the University of Ottawa, was recognized for, among his other accomplishments, “his work in developing tools to synthesize and modify molecules,” said the citation. The medal, NSERC’s highest honor, is awarded to an individual who has demonstrated sustained excellence and influence in research for a body of work conducted in Canada that has substantially advanced the natural sciences or engineering fields. NSERC will provide Alper with Can$1 million (about US$651 000) for his research over the next five years.

Barry Taylor, manager of the Fundamental Constants Data Center at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is the first recipient of the CODATA Prize, which was awarded last fall by the Committee on Data for Science Technology (CODATA) of the International Council for Science. Taylor was cited for “major contributions to the advancement of our understanding of the physical world through critically evaluated values of the fundamental physical constants.” The CODATA secretariat, located in Paris, serves a worldwide network of national committees, scientific union members, and other supporting organizations.

In Calcutta last September, the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Calcutta awarded its first Professor K. Banerjee Endowment Lecture Silver Medal to John R. Helliwell during a centenary celebration of Banerjee’s birth. At that celebration, Helliwell delivered the lecture “New Opportunities in Biological and Chemical Crystallography,” which was published in the January 2001 issue of The Indian Journal of Physics. He is the professor of structural chemistry at the UK’s University of Manchester and editor-in-chief of Acta Crystallographica.