NSF PR 01-40 (NSB 01-90) - May 8, 2001
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Harold Varmus, Lewis Branscomb are Honored with
the Vannevar Bush Award
The National Science Board (NSB) has named two renowned
scientists to receive the Vannevar Bush Award for
lifetime achievement in science and public service.
Harold E. Varmus, former director of the National
Institutes of Health and a Nobel-prize holder for
contributions to understanding the mechanisms of cancer,
and Lewis M. Branscomb, a physicist, former NSB chair
and one of the most compelling voices in science and
technology policy will receive the award May 23 at
a Department of State-hosted awards dinner.
Varmus is currently president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center in New York City, the nation's oldest
and largest private institution for cancer research.
No stranger to heading large organizations, Varmus
joined Sloan-Kettering after directing for seven years
the government's largest health-related research organization,
the National Institutes of Health, through a major
growth period during the 1990s.
"Harold Varmus is a national treasure," Rita Colwell,
National Science Foundation (NSF) director said. "He
is a Nobel Prize-winning researcher himself. Harold
has opened many doors in education and has provided
tremendous leadership to the nation's scientific community.
He's a motivator. The nation's top scientists just
seem to gravitate in his direction out of respect
for his abilities and leadership. And he's a staunch
supporter of fundamental research. His strong voice
in this area has been welcome because it is often
forgotten how much of medical research is dependent
upon the results of basic research in the physical
sciences."
As a professor of microbiology, Varmus shared the Nobel
Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 with Professor
J. Michael Bishop, his then colleague at the University
of California, San Francisco, for their work in retroviruses
that led to an understanding of the genetic basis
for cancer. Varmus and Bishop showed that cancer genes
(oncogenes) can arise from normal cellular genes.
The oncogenes begin as normal genes in the cell, but
at some point, carcinogenic activity in the cell's
environment activates the gene in a sequence that
can lead to cancer.
In addition to reversing funding trends at NIH through
his influence with Congress, Varmus helped alter a
perceived skeptical public image about the positive
aspects of biomedical research, successfully generated
large investments in the Human Genome Project, revised
the peer review process at the agency and placed a
major emphasis on improving and expanding NIH-supported
clinical research facilities nationwide.
Lewis Branscomb, professor emeritus in public policy
and corporate management at the John F. Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard University, is a physicist
and former chairman of the National Science Board
who pioneered the study of atomic and molecular negative
ions and their role in the atmospheres of the earth
and stars. He served four Presidents and has written
many books and articles as a respected expert in science
and technology policy and management of innovation
and technology.
Branscomb joined the National Bureau of Standards (NBS
- now the National Institute of Standards and Technology)
in 1951 and made the first vacuum measurements of
the photodetachment spectrum of a free negative ion,
verifying the theory that the absorption of light
by the negative hydrogen ion determines the surface
temperature of the sun. He returned to NBS in 1969,
appointed by President Nixon to head the agency.
Branscomb served three other presidents. President
Johnson appointed him to the Science Advisory Committee
and also to chair the Panel on Space Science and Technology
during the Apollo mission to the moon. Branscomb was
appointed to the National Science Board in 1979 by
President Carter, and chaired the NSB from 1980-84.
Under President Reagan, he was appointed a member
of the National Productivity Advisory Committee and
also chairman of the Subcommittee on Research, Development
and Technological Innovation.
In the private sector, Branscomb served as Vice President
and Chief Scientist at IBM, where he worked for 15
years from 1972 to 1986.
"I am especially pleased at receiving the Vannevar
Bush Award because Dr. Bush was the epitome of the
view that basic scientific research and useful applications
of science and engineering are not only compatible,
but essential to one another," Branscomb said. Vannevar
Bush's seminal report, Science - The Endless Frontier,
published in 1945, set the tone for the nation's future
undertaking of publicly-funded fundamental research,
and led to the creation in 1950 of the National Science
Foundation, the independent government entity assigned
to carry out much of this research through universities
and non-profit institutions.
"Dr. Branscomb's is a figure of tremendous stature
in U.S. science and technology policy," Eamon Kelly,
current NSB chair, said. "His creativity and enthusiasm
have catalyzed and energized the entire science policy
community by initiating and coordinating the efforts
of government, industry and academic sectors. Dr.
Branscomb's lifetime achievements, record of public
service, and his productivity far outpace even the
most energetic and devoted leaders in science and
technology."
The Vannevar Bush Award is presented to individuals
who make outstanding contributions toward humanity
and the nation through lifetime professional achievement
and in public service activities in science and technology.
Since 1980, when it was first presented, just 23 individuals
have received the award.
See also: Fact
Sheet on Vannevar Bush Award
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