AAAS Award Winners Have Had Impact as Leaders, Mentors and Diplomats

On the eve of its 2005 annual meeting, AAAS today named a high-impact group of scientists and educators as the winners of six awards for research, education and public service.

The 2004 AAAS awards will be presented at a ceremony on Saturday, 19 February, in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. The ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m.

[Stories on each of the award winners are available online at the AAAS Annual Meeting news page.]

The winners:

• Maxine Frank Singer, president emeritus of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has been named to receive the prestigious 2004 AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize for her countless roles in service to science and its potential for improving human welfare. The prize was inspired by the late Philip Hauge Abelson, who served as long-time senior adviser to AAAS and editor of the association's journal, Science. The Prize is awarded annually to a public servant, in recognition of sustained, exceptional contributions to advancing science, or to a scientist whose career has been distinguished by scientific achievements as well as other notable services to the scientific community.
• Eric S. Lander, gene-science pioneer and founding director of the newly created Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, has been named the recipient of the Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award. Lander, "has helped to tell the stories of genomics research to a broad cross-section of the general public in a consistently compelling and meaningful way," said Shirley Malcom, director of Education and Human Resources at AAAS. "In this way, he has shown his commitment to educating the public about a new and complex science with profound implications for the quality of human life."
• Michael Jeffrey Balick of The New York Botanical Garden will receive the 2004 International Scientific Cooperation Award. Balick, philecology curator and director of the garden's Institute of Economic Botany and vice president for research and training, was honored by AAAS for his tireless efforts to promote scientific collaboration within the field of ethnobotany—the study of the relationship between plants and people across cultures.
• Rhonda J. Hughes, the Helen Herrmann Professor of Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College, was named to receive the 2004 AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award. Hughes has helped 57 women and minority students earn graduate degrees in mathematics, including 17 at the doctoral level. Hughes was described as "a model teacher, scholar, and mentor who is selfless in her dedication."
• Jagannathan Sankar, professor of mechanical and chemical engineering and the director of the Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanomaterials at North Carolina A&T State University, will receive the 2004 AAAS Mentor Award. Sankar was recognized for "his unbridled enthusiasm" in aiding or mentoring 46 Ph.D. students, including 22 underrepresented minorities.
• The Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee at the U.S. National Institutes of Health was given the 2004 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award. The committee was cited for "30 years of providing leadership that has allowed society to proceed responsibly with recombinant DNA research" and gene therapy.
• A report on the process whereby a computer-designed protein was synthesized and confirmed to match the original plan earned the coveted 2003-2004 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize. The journal report was published in the 21 November 2003 issue of Science. The prize—the oldest award conferred by AAAS—was established in 1923 with funds donated by Newcomb Cleveland of New York City to recognize outstanding Science articles. The award currently is supported by Affymetrix of Santa Clara, Calif.

For full stories on each of the prize-winners, see the AAAS Annual Meeting news page.

— Edward W. Lempinen

16 February 2005