National Science Board Honors Public Service

Aformer NSF director and the first American woman to walk in space are among this year’s winners of awards presented by the National Science Board, the governing board of NSF, in May at a dinner hosted by the State Department.

Richard C. Atkinson, who directed NSF from 1977 to 1980, received the NSB’s top honor, the 2003 Vannevar Bush Award, for his “contributions to our understanding of human cognition and his vigorous advocacy of the scientific enterprise in the public interest.” According to the board, his research on the nature of memory “led to better understanding of brain structures that relate to psychological phenomena and the effects drugs have on the memory.” In the 1960s, he created one of the first computer-controlled systems for classroom instruction, work that led to the commercialization of computer-assisted instructional systems. During his tenure as NSF’s director, Atkinson negotiated the first-ever memorandum of understanding between the US and the People’s Republic of China. That effort helped “[open] the doors for major exchanges of scientists and scholars between the two nations,” declared the NSB. Atkinson was named president of the University of California system in 1995. He will retire from that post on 1 October.

A former NASA astronaut, a radio show, and a nonprofit educational organization garnered the NSB’s Public Service Awards. Kathryn D. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was honored with the individual award for her “accomplishments as an explorer of Earth and space, a science educator, and a role model for girls and young women.” Sullivan is president and CEO of COSI Columbus, a science center in Columbus, Ohio, whose focus is to make science fun through hands-on discovery.

The group award went to the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and the radio series Earth & Sky . The NSB acknowledged CASW, a nonprofit educational organization, for its “achievement in bringing together scientists and science writers for the purpose of improving the quality of science news reaching the public.” The council, located in Hedgesville, West Virginia, funds programs to help journalists and science writers present accurate and informative news stories about developments in science, medicine, and technology.

Earth & Sky, a 90-second radio series produced by the nonprofit organization Earth & Sky Inc based in Austin, Texas, was recognized for its “achievement in broadcasting explanations of research and everyday science to a worldwide audience.” The program is broadcast by nearly 680 radio stations in the US and heard internationally on other radio networks.