We Hear That

National Science Board, NSF Give Awards

In May, the National Science Board and the National Science Foundation presented several awards at a State Department-hosted dinner. Lewis M. Branscomb and Harold E. Varmus were honored with the NSB's Vannevar Bush Award. Branscomb was recognized for "his distinguished public service in the development of US science and technology policy; a scientist, teacher, scholar, business leader, and author who has influenced policies of recent [presidential] administrations, [he] has been an inspiration to students and colleagues, and a valuable asset to the nation," according to the citation. A professor emeritus in public policy and corporate management at Harvard University, Branscomb is also a physicist who pioneered the study of atomic and molecular negative ions and their roles in the atmospheres of Earth and the stars. In addition, he is a former chairman of the NSB and a former president of the American Physical Society.

Varmus was recognized with the Vannevar Bush Award "for his research in mechanisms and origin of cancer, his introduction of new intramural and extramural research programs, new leadership and expansion of the National Institutes of Health, and his continuing leadership in science." Currently president and CEO of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Varmus, as a professor of microbiology, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 with J. Michael Bishop, then his colleague at the University of California, San Francisco.

NSF presented its Alan T. Waterman Award to Vahid Tarokh, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He was cited for "the invention of space-time coding techniques that produce dramatic gains in the spectral efficiency of wireless digital communication systems." The Waterman Award is the foundation's highest honor for young scientists and engineers.

Author Dava Sobel of East Hampton, New York, received the NSB's 2001 individual Public Service Award for "her enhancement of the public's understanding of the role of science in our lives and for fostering awareness of science and technology among broad segments of the general public." Sobel's latest work, Galileo's Daughter (Penguin, 2000), chronicles Galileo's life through letters from his daughter.

The NSB awarded the 2001 Public Service Award for organizations to the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo, Education Division, in the Bronx, New York. The organization was acknowledged for "fostering awareness of science among broad segments of the population and influencing and encouraging the next generation of life science professionals."