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"Vital Statistics" of the Awardees of the 1998 National Medal of Science
Behavioral and Social Sciences
William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor,
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
What: Wilson's approach to studying urban poverty has encouraged
a broader point of view with respect to the interactions of race, class
and location, and has influenced further research in the field by a
generation of social scientists.
Why: Wilson revitalized the field of urban sociology, pioneering
methods of interdisciplinary social science research, advancing understanding
of the interaction between the macroeconomic, social structural, cultural
and behavioral forces that cause and reproduce inner city poverty.
Author of five important books, The Truly Disadvantaged, is Wilson's
most influential. In it, he laid out a new set of hypotheses about
why inner city poverty had been getting worse, and he mapped a new
research agenda on the subject. Research on what has increasingly come
to be known as the "underclass" has since focused largely on this agenda.
His now classic account in The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City,
The Underclass, and Public Policy, explains the social dislocations
caused by the massive loss of employment opportunities in the inner
city, and it has framed ever since, scholarship in urban poverty. His
guiding hypotheses about the relationships among urban industrial decline,
black job loss, residential segregation and the problems of family
instability and communal dysfunction have stimulated a new generation
of social, economic, anthropological and psychological research.
Personal: Doctorate in sociology/anthropology, Washington
State University. M.A. in sociology/history, Bowling Green State University,
Ohio. Bachelor of Arts in sociology/history, Wilberforce University,
Wilberforce, Ohio. Born in Derry Township, Penn., Dec. 20, 1935.
Biological Sciences
Bruce N. Ames, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and
Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center,
University of California, Berkeley
What: Ames changed the direction of basic and applied research
on mutation, cancer and aging. He devised a simple, inexpensive test for
environmental and natural mutagens, identified causes and effects of oxidative
DNA damage and translated these findings into intelligible public policy
recommendations on diet and cancer risk for the American people.
Why: Ames' contributions have had direct application to the
evaluation of environmental and natural mutagens. The validity of a simple
test to measure the production of mutations in bacteria has been confirmed
by rigorous quantitative comparisons with data available from animal tests.
He recognized the preponderance of natural chemicals that have mutagenic
potential, and devised a quantitative index to order these chemicals.
Dr. Ames' work on endogenous DNA damage and its role in aging and cancer
is likely to have an even larger impact. In a series of major papers and
reviews, he presented evidence that endogenous oxidants are important
in damaging DNA. He developed an innovative method for measuring oxidative
DNA damage in individual humans by measuring DNA repair products excreted
in urine. His work represents a singular example of the application of
basic research to health and public policy issues.
Personal: Doctorate in biochemistry from the California Institute
of Technology. Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Cornell University.
Born in New York, N.Y., Dec. 16, 1928.
Janet D. Rowley, Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor, University
of Chicago
What: Rowley has revolutionized cancer research, diagnosis
and treatment through her discovery of chromosomal translocations in
cancer, and in her pioneering work on the relationship of prior treatment
to recurring chromosome abnormalities. Her work epitomizes the "bench
to bedside" philosophy in the application of basic discoveries to clinical
medicine.
Why: Almost immediately after technical methods for examining
human chromosomes were developed in the late 1950's, Rowley began applying
those methods to the analysis of leukemia cells. She identified visible
rearrangements, some of which where characteristic of a particular
variety of cancer. In 1972, Dr. Rowley discovered the first two recurring
chromosome translocations identified in any human cancer, and subsequently
went on to characterize six other translocations and inversions which
are commonly observed in various types of leukemia. Rowley's discovery
of recurring chromosome translocations resulted in a paradigm shift
that has had an ever-broadening impact on basic cell biology and on
clinical cancer research.
Personal: M.D., Bachelor of Science and Ph.B., from the University
of Chicago. Born Apr. 5, 1925, in New York, N.Y.
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Photo courtesy of David Bentley
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Chemistry
John W. Cahn, Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, MD
What: The world's intellectual leader in a
broad range of the materials science, Cahn had a profound influence
on the course of materials and mathematics research, and had an immense
impact on three generations of materials scientists, solid-state physicists
and mathematicians.
Why: Throughout a 40-year career, John Cahn developed pioneering
theories on how materiakls transform from one phase to another under
conditions of changing stress, temperature and material composition.
Time and again, he has been the first to recognize a fundamental materials
problem and to propose a breakthrough solution that encompasses all
the important physics and extends the limits of what is known in mathematics.
His fundamental approaches have generated new scientific fields which
have expanded our understanding of the behavior of engineering materials.
Cahn is most widely known for the discovery and analysis, along with
Shechtman, Blech, and Gratias, of a quasi-periodic solid. This discovery
by Cahn and his coworkers in 1984 sparked a revolution in crystallography.
Now known as "quasi-crystals," this was one of the most important scientific
breakthroughs in physics.
Personal: Doctorate in physical chemistry from the University
of California at Berkeley. Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the
university of Michigan. Born Jan. 9, 1928 in Cologne, Germany.
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George M. Whitesides, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry, Harvard
University
What: Whitesides has led research areas that
connect chemistry to materials science and biology, introduced quantitative
approaches to studies of organic surface chemistry, and developed imaginative
technologies for fabricating ultra small structures (micro-and nanotechnology).
Why: Whitesides made critical contributions to new synthetic
methods, based on using naturally occurring catalysts, called enzymes,
for producing molecules in pharmaceutical, agricultural and medical
applications. He is seen as innovative in his studies of molecular
virology. His work included developing methods to block adhesion of
viruses and bacteria to the surfaces of cells in mammals and to prohibit
the budding of viruses from infected cells. In surface chemistry, his
novel techniques for the self-assembly of molecules on surfaces has
important implications for biocompatibility, adhesion, corrosion resistance
and friction, among other surface phenomena. More recently, he has
developed a range of imaginative technologies -- collectively called "soft
lithography" --for fabricating ultra small structures. The first of
these, called "microcontact printing," is currently being evaluated
for potential use in the low-cost fabrication of microelectronic and
optical devices, as well as small devices for analyzing biological
samples ("microanalytical system on a chip").
Personal: Doctorate in chemistry, California Institute of
Technology. A.B. in chemistry from Harvard University. Born Aug. 3,
1939, in Louisville, Ky.
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Photo courtesy of Jane Reed, Harvard University
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Engineering
Eli Ruckenstein, Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering,
State University of New York at Buffalo
What: Ruckenstein's pioneering theories, experimental
and technological achievements include most areas of chemical engineering,
particularly those involveding colloidal and surface phenomona, transport
phenomona, catalysis and advanced materials. He is considered one of
the worlds leading scientists in these fields.
Why: Ruckenstein's most notable contributions deal with complex
fluids (surfactant solutions, microemulsions amd liquid crystals),
dispersions (colloidal dispersions, emulsions and supported metal catalysts)
and materials. He was one of the first to propose models for the aggregation
of surfactant molecules in solution, which he later extended to other
complex fluids. He pioneered thermodynamic theories of microemulsions
and liquid crystals, which explain their stability. Ruckenstein also
developed theories regarding the interaction of forces between colloidal
particles in colloidal dispersions, which suggested methods for the
preparation of materials with interesting thermal and rheological properties.
In the past few years, these materials found application in IBM mainframe
computers. He pioneered theories regarding concentrated emulsions,
and employed them to prepare interesting composite polymers as well
as membranes for separation processes. Ruckenstein also made seminal
contributions in all aspects of catalysis. He was the first to examine
theoretically the aging of the supported metal catalysts and to develop
a quantum chemical theory of the poisoning and promoting of catalytic
materials.
Personal: Doctoral and Bachelor of Engineering degrees from
Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest, Romania. Born Aug. 13, 1925 in
Botosani, Romania.
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Mathematics
Cathleen Synge Morawetz, Professor Emerita, Courant Institute of
Mathematical Sciences, New York University
What: Morawetz has pioneered advances to the
theory of partial differential equations and wave propagation resulting
in applications to aerodynamics, acoustics and optics.
Why: In a series of three significant papers in the 1950's,
Cathleen Morawetz used ingenious new estimates for the solution of
mixed nonlinear partial differential equations that ultimately led
to advanced studies of wing design in aviation. In the early 1960's,
Morawetz obtained important results in geometrical optics in connection
with sonar and radar. It was known then that geometrical optics could
be used to determine approximately the acoustic and electromagnetic
fields scattered by objects. It was believed that this approximation
became more accurate as the wavelength approached zero. Morawetz showed
that this is the case and obtained an estimate of the error. Her result
placed geometrical optics on a firmer foundation and led to further
practical use of this approach.
Personal: Doctorate, New York University, Master of Science,
M.I.T., Bachelors degree from the University of Toronto. Born May 5,
1923 in Toronto, Canada.
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Physical Sciences
Don L. Anderson, Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geophysics,
Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
What: Anderson has made leading contributions
to understanding the composition, structure and dynamics of Earth and
Earth-like planets, and he has had an immeasurable influence on the
advancement of earth sciences over the past three decades nationally
and internationally.
Why: Early in the 1960's, Anderson drew the attention of
geophysicists to seismic anisotropy (study of seismic waves of different
velocities both vertically and horizontally) in the upper mantle at
a time when only a few scientists had paid attention to it. Now, this
has become one of the most exciting tools in seismography. He also
discovered and explained the boundaries in the mantle. In 1981, Anderson
and Adam Dziewonski established what has become the most widely used
standard earth model (PREM) in the last decade. His book, Theory of
the Earth, is a presentation of this broad and provocative research
that will guide a wide spectrum of earth scientists in years to come.
Personal: Doctorate and Masters of Science degrees from the
California Institute of Technology, and Bachelor of Science degree
from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Born Mar. 5, 1933 in Frederick,
Md.
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Photo courtesy of Bob Paz/Caltech
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John N. Bahcall, Richard Black Professor of Natural Sciences, Institute
for Advanced Study, and Visiting Lecturer with rank of professor, Princeton
University.
What: Bahcall pioneered the development of
neutrino astrophysics, especially his study of neutrinos from the Sun.
He also made important contributions to the study of the structure
of stars, galaxies and quasars. His contributions to the planning of
the Hubble Space Telescope were crucial in its development and ultimate
success.
Why: The fact that neutrinos emitted from deep inside the
Sun have been detected at Earth has verified that the Sun produces
energy by nuclear fusion processes, similar to those which occur in
a hydrogen bomb. Bahcall has led the way in establishing, through careful
calculations, that fewer neutrinos have been detected than predicted,
constituting the so-called "solar neutrino problem," widely recognized
as one of the great scientific puzzles of our time. Many physicists
believe that the solution to this mystery will have profound implications
for the theory of elementary particles. Bahcall has also played a leading
role in utilizing the developing field of helioseismology (which studies
sound waves in the Sun) to determine conditions in the solar core.
Personal: Ph.D. in Physics, Harvard University, M.A. in Physics,
University of Chicago. B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Born Dec. 30, 1934 in Shreveport, La.
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Photo courtesy of Randall Hagadorn
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