AAAS Public Engagement with Science Award Recipients

formerly “AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology”

2012 Recipient

Richard B. Alley is recognized for his decades-long, broadbased and exceptionally effective efforts communicating the best of climate science to excite the interest of the general public and policymakers.

Past Recipients

2011
Nalini Nadkarni is noted for her efforts to bridge gaps between society and science, humans and nature. Her work has taken her to prisons and churches, boardrooms and bookstores, legislatures and rap music studios.

2010
J. John Cohen is honored for his innovative and interactive education models that have served to demystify and effectively communicate the medical sciences throughout the Denver, Colorado area and the world.

2009
May R. Berenbaum is honored for for her extraordinary ability to integrate her original research on the world of insects with her inspirational efforts to communicate the wonders and complexity of nature.

2008
Kenneth R. Miller is honored for his sustained efforts and excellence in communicating evolutionary science.

2007
Neil deGrasse Tyson is being honored for his passionate commitment, sustained excellence, and dynamic leadership in engaging the public in the frontiers of science.

2006
S. James Gates, Jr. is honored for sustained and career-long contributions to the public understanding of physics.

2005
Jane Lubchenco is this year's recipient of the AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. She is honored for her exemplary commitment to, and leadership of, public understanding of science initiatives in public policy and professional arenas as a core aspect of her scientific practice.

2004
Eric S. Lander, honored for his excellence in communicating complex scientific ideas, and their implications for society, to the general public and policy-makers while actively engaged in a demanding research program.

2003
John Allen Paulos, honored for his substantial contributions in promoting the pleasures of mathematics to large audiences.

2002
Bassam Shakhashiri, University of Wisconsin, for his tireless commitment to educating the public, especially children, about the nature and wonder of science.

2001
Ian N. Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at Warwick University and Director of the Mathematics Awareness Centre (MAC@W), for communicating the excitement of science and mathematics to millions of people around the world.

2000
Vaclav Smil, University of Manitoba, Winnepeg, Canda, for providing the public with important resources to understand complex and pressing global issues.

1999
Lawrence Krauss, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, for his global impact as a scientific communicator.

1998
Christopher Wills, University of California, San Diego, for his work in explaining the marvels of evolutionary biology to the lay public.

1997
Barry T. Peterson, University of Texas Health Center, for the scope and diversity of his efforts to communicate science to the public while maintaining a productive, full-time research center.

1996
Alan J. Friedman, for the outstanding job he has done revitalizing the New York Hall of Science, a science center that communicates the wonder, excitement and joy of science to the general public.

For a complete listing of past AAAS Public Engagement with Science Award recipients, please see the Archives.

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