News from the National Academy of Sciences

January 21, 2021

Academy Honors 20 for Major Contributions to Science

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences will honor 20 individuals with awards in recognition of their extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, social, and medical sciences.

Dana W. Longcope, Montana State University, will receive the Arctowski Medal for fundamental research on the nature of solar magnetism, magnetic topology, and reconnection. The medal is presented with a $100,000 prize, and $100,000 to support research in solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships.

Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia, will receive the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal for excellence in published research on marine and freshwater algae. The medal is presented with $50,000 prize.

Sheperd Doeleman, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard University & Smithsonian, and Heino Falcke, Radboud University, will receive the Henry Draper Medal for their pioneering work that enabled the first imaging of a black hole. The medal is presented with a $25,000 prize.

Meenakshi Wadhwa, Arizona State University, will receive the J. Lawrence Smith Medal for her original and meritorious investigation of meteoric bodies. The medal is presented with a $50,000 prize.

Adam W. Marcus, EPFL, Daniel Alan Spielman, Yale University, and Nikhil Srivastava, University of California, Berkeley, will receive the Michael and Sheila Held Prize for their revolutionary work on the Kadison-Singer problem and Ramanujan graphs. The award is presented with a $100,000 prize.

Susan Solomon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will receive the NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society for contributions to understanding and communicating the causes of ozone depletion and climate change. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will receive the NAS Award for Scientific Discovery for his pioneering developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The award is presented with a $50,000 prize, and $50,000 to support the recipient’s research.

Peter Schultz, Scripps Research Institute, will receive the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for pioneering chemical and synthetic biology to address challenges in health, energy, and materials science. The award is presented with a $15,000 prize.

Joseph D. Mougous, University of Washington and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will receive the NAS Award in Molecular Biology for pioneering work in microbiology. The award is presented with a $25,000 prize.

Shuhai Xiao, Virginia Tech, will receive the NAS Award in the Evolution of Earth and Life - Mary Clark Thompson Medal for re-envisioning our understanding of evolution. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.

Christina M. Grozinger, Pennsylvania State University, will receive the NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences for helping the world understand how to address the pollinator crisis. The award is presented with a $100,000 prize.

Tirin Moore, Stanford University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will receive the Pradel Research Award for neurobiological discoveries that deepen our understanding of the neural circuits of attention. The award is presented with a $50,000 award to support neuroscience research.

Feng Zhang, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, will receive the Richard Lounsbery Award for pioneering achievements developing CRISPR tools with the potential to diagnose and treat disease. The award is presented with a $75,000 prize.

Pascale Cossart, Pasteur Institute and the Académie des sciences, will receive the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology for her discoveries on bacterial pathogens that benefit human health worldwide. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.

Michael J. Frank, Brown University, and Nicole Rust, University of Pennsylvania, will each receive a Troland Research Award. With these awards, the Academy recognizes Frank for his pioneering contributions to the new field of computational psychiatry and neurology, and Rust for significant advancements in experimental psychology and neuroscience. Each recipient is presented with a $75,000 prize to support their research.

Charles L. Glaser, George Washington University, will receive the William and Katherine Estes Award for behavioral research toward the prevention of nuclear war. The award is presented with a $20,000 prize.

The winners will be honored in a virtual ceremony during the National Academy of Sciences' 158th annual meeting.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Contact:
Molly Galvin
Director, Executive Communications
Office of News and Public Information
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
202-334-2138
news@nas.edu; www.nationalacademies.org 

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