Public Welfare Medal
Encyclopedia
The Public Welfare Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
"in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the Academy. First awarded in 1914, the medal has been awarded annually since 1976.
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
"in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the Academy. First awarded in 1914, the medal has been awarded annually since 1976.
List of Public Welfare Medal winners
- 2011: Ismail SerageldinIsmail SerageldinIsmail Serageldin is the director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. He also chairs the Boards of Directors for each of the BA's affiliated research institutes and museums and was a Distinguished Professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands...
- 2010: Eugenie C. ScottEugenie ScottEugenie Carol Scott is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education since 1987...
- 2009: Neal F. LaneNeal Francis LaneNeal Francis Lane , is a U.S. physicist. He served as provost of Rice University and served as Science Advisor to the President of the United States. He has written extensively on theoretical physics and technology policy for the James A...
- 2008: Norman P. Neureiter
- 2007: Maxine F. SingerMaxine SingerMaxine Frank Singer is an American molecular biologist and science administrator. She is known for her contributions to solving the genetic code, her role in the ethical and regulatory debates on recombinant DNA techniques , and her leadership of Carnegie Institution of Washington.Singer...
- 2006: Norman R. AugustineNorman Ralph AugustineNorman Ralph Augustine is a U.S. aerospace businessman who served as Under Secretary of the Army from 1975-77. Augustine currently serves as chairman of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee.-Career:...
- 2005: William H. FoegeWilliam FoegeWilliam Herbert Foege M.D., M.P.H. is an American epidemiologist who is credited with "devising the global strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s"....
- 2004: Maurice F. StrongMaurice StrongMaurice F. Strong, PC, CC, OM, FRSC is a Canadian entrepreneur and a former under-secretary general of the United Nations. Strong's first name is pronounced "Mor'ris" with the accent on the first syllable....
- 2003: Shirley M. Malcom
- 2002: Norman E. BorlaugNorman BorlaugNorman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate who has been called "the father of the Green Revolution". Borlaug was one of only six people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal...
- 2001: David A. KesslerDavid Aaron KesslerDavid Aaron Kessler is an American pediatrician, lawyer, author, and administrator...
- 2000: Gilbert F. WhiteGilbert F. WhiteGilbert Fowler White was a prominent American geographer, sometimes termed the "father of floodplain management" and the "leading environmental geographer of the 20th century"...
- 1999: Arnold O. BeckmanArnold Orville BeckmanArnold Orville Beckman was an American chemist who founded Beckman Instruments based on his 1934 invention of the pH meter, a device for measuring acidity. He also funded the first transistor company, thus giving rise to Silicon Valley.-Early life:Beckman was born in Cullom, Illinois, the son of...
- 1998: David A. Hamburg
- 1997: George W. Thorn
- 1996: William T. Golden
- 1995: Harold AmosHarold AmosHarold Amos was an American microbiologist and professor. He taught at Harvard Medical School for nearly fifty years and was the first African American department chair of the school. He also inspired hundreds of minorities to become medical doctors.Amos was born in Pennsauken, New Jersey. He...
- 1994: Carl SaganCarl SaganCarl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
- 1993: Jerome B. WiesnerJerome WiesnerJerome Bert Wiesner was an educator, a Science Advisor to U.S. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson, an advocate for arms control, and a critic of anti-ballistic-missile defense systems...
- 1992: Philip H. AbelsonPhilip AbelsonPhilip Hauge Abelson was an American physicist, a scientific editor, and a science writer.-Life:Abelson was born in 1913 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Washington State University where he received degrees in chemistry and physics, and the University of California, Berkeley , where he earned...
- 1991: Victor F. WeisskopfVictor Frederick WeisskopfVictor Frederick Weisskopf was an Austrian-born Jewish American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr...
- 1990: C. Everett KoopC. Everett KoopCharles Everett Koop, MD is an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.-Early years:Koop was born...
- 1989: David PackardDavid PackardDavid Packard was a co-founder of Hewlett-Packard , serving as president , CEO , and Chairman of the Board . He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969–1971 during the Nixon administration...
- 1988: John E. SawyerJohn Edward SawyerJohn Edward Sawyer was a prominent academic and philanthropic administrator. He was educated at Worcester Academy and then Deerfield Academy, Williams College, and Harvard University. He served as the 11th president of Williams College, and headed the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation...
- 1987: Dale R. CorsonDale R. CorsonDale R. Corson was the eighth president of Cornell University. Born in Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1914, Corson received a B.A. degree from the College of Emporia in 1934, his M.A. degree from the University of Kansas in 1935, and his Ph.D...
- 1986: William D. CareyWilliam D. CareyWilliam D. Carey was Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and publisher of Science from 1975 through 1987....
- 1985: I. I. RabiIsidor Isaac RabiIsidor Isaac Rabi was a Galician-born American physicist and Nobel laureate recognized in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance.-Early years:...
- 1984: Theodore M. HesburghTheodore HesburghThe Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC, STD , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is the namesake for TIAA-CREF's Hesburgh Award....
- 1983: Mina ReesMina ReesMina Spiegel Rees was an American mathematician. She was the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and head of the mathematics department...
- 1982: Paul Grant RogersPaul Rogers (politician)Paul Grant Rogers was an American lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Florida. A Democrat, Rogers served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the member from Florida's 11th congressional district. He was chairman of Research!America from 1996 to 2005.-Early life:Rogers was born in...
- 1981: Russell E. TrainRussell E. TrainRussell Errol Train was the second Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency , from September 1973 to January 1977, and the Founder Chairman Emeritus of World Wildlife Fund . As head of the EPA under U.S...
- 1980: Walter S. SullivanWalter S. SullivanWalter Seager Sullivan, Jr was considered the "dean" of science writers.Sullivan spent most of his career as a science reporter for the New York Times...
- 1979: Cecil H. GreenCecil Howard GreenCecil Howard Green was a British-born American geophysicist who trained at the University of British Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
and Ida M. Green - 1978: Donald A. HendersonDonald HendersonDonald Ainslie Henderson, known as D.A. Henderson, is an American physician and epidemiologist, who headed the international effort during the 1960s to eradicate smallpox. , he is a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Biosecurity and a professor of...
- 1977: Leona BaumgartnerLeona BaumgartnerLeona Baumgartner was an American physician. She was the first woman to serve as Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health...
- 1976: Emilio Q. DaddarioEmilio Q. DaddarioEmilio Quincy Daddario was an American Democratic politician from Connecticut. He served as a member of the 86th through 91st United States Congresses.-Life and career:...
- 1972: Leonard CarmichaelLeonard CarmichaelLeonard Carmichael was a U.S. educator and psychologist. Born on November 9, 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received his B.S. from Tufts University in 1921 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1924...
- 1969: Lister HillJ. Lister HillJoseph Lister Hill was a Democratic U.S. Senator from the state of Alabama. He was elected to fill the term left by the resignation of Dixie Bibb Graves and was reelected five times, serving in the Senate from January 11, 1938 until January 3, 1969...
- 1966: John W. Gardner
- 1964: Detlev W. BronkDetlev BronkDetlev Wulf Bronk was President of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1949 to 1953 and President of the National Academy of Sciences from 1950 to 1962. Bronk is credited with reshaping the postwar university environment at Hopkins...
- 1963: J. G. Harrar
- 1962: James A. ShannonJames Augustine ShannonJames Augustine Shannon was an American nephrologist who served as director of National Institutes of Health from 1955-1968. In 1962 he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences....
- 1960: Alan T. WatermanAlan Tower WatermanAlan Tower Waterman was an American physicist.Born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, he grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts. His father was a professor of physics at Smith College. Alan also became a physicist, doing his undergraduate and doctoral work at Princeton University, from which he...
- 1959: James H. DoolittleJimmy DoolittleGeneral James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, USAF was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a brigadier general, major general and lieutenant general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War...
- 1958: Henry A. Moe
- 1957: Warren WeaverWarren WeaverWarren Weaver was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator...
- 1956: James R. Killian, Jr.James Rhyne KillianDr. James Rhyne Killian, Jr. was the 10th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from 1948 until 1959.-Career:...
- 1951: David Lilienthal
- 1948: George H. ShullGeorge Harrison ShullGeorge Harrison Shull was an eminent American plant geneticist. He was born in Clark Co., Ohio, graduated from Antioch College in 1901 and from the University of Chicago in 1904, served as botanical expert to the Bureau of Plant Industry in 1903-04, and thenceforth was a botanical investigator of...
- 1947: Karl T. ComptonKarl Taylor ComptonKarl Taylor Compton was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1948.- The early years :...
- 1945: Vannevar BushVannevar BushVannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
- 1943: John D. Rockefeller, Jr.John D. Rockefeller, Jr.John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...
- 1939: J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar HooverJohn Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
- 1937: Willis R. Whitney
- 1935: Hugh S. CummingHugh S. CummingHugh Smith Cumming was an American physician, and soldier. He was appointed the fifth Surgeon General of the United States from 1920 to 1936.- Early life :Cumming was born in Hampton, Virginia...
and F. F. RussellFrederick F. RussellBrigadier General Frederick Fuller Russell was a U.S. Army physician who developed a typhoid vaccine in 1909. In 1911, the typhoid vaccination program was only the second time an entire U.S. army was immunized. The first was in 1776 when George Washington ordered the vaccination of the... - 1934: August Vollmer August VollmerAugust "Gus" Vollmer was a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He was also the first police chief of Berkeley, California.-Youth:...
- 1933: David FairchildDavid FairchildDavid Grandison Fairchild was an American botanist and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including soybeans, pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and flowering...
- 1932: William H. ParkWilliam Hallock ParkWilliam Hallock Park was an American bacteriologist and Laboratory Director, New York City Board of Health, Division of Pathology, Bacteriology, and Disinfection 1893 to 1936-Biography:Park was born on December 30, 1863 in New York City....
- 1931: Wickliffe Rose
- 1930: Stephen T. Mather
- 1928: Charles V. ChapinCharles V. ChapinCharles Value Chapin was a pioneer in public- health practice, serving as one of the Health Officers for Providence, Rhode Island between 1884 and 1932...
- 1921: Charles W. StilesCharles Wardell StilesCharles Wardell Stiles was an American parasitologist born in Spring Valley, New York.-Biography:He studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut , Collège de France , the University of Berlin and the University of Leipzig...
- 1920: Herbert HooverHerbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
- 1917: Samuel W. StrattonSamuel Wesley StrattonSamuel Wesley Stratton was an administrator in the American government, physicist, and educator.Stratton was born on farm in Litchfield, Illinois on July 18, 1861. In his youth he kept farm machinery in repair and worked as a mechanic and carpenter...
- 1916: Cleveland AbbeCleveland AbbeCleveland Abbe was an American meteorologist and advocate of time zones. While director of the Cincinnati Observatory in Cincinnati, Ohio, he developed a system of telegraphic weather reports, daily weather maps, and weather forecasts. Congress in 1870 established the U.S. Weather Bureau and...
and Gifford PinchotGifford PinchotGifford Pinchot was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania... - 1914: George W. GoethalsGeorge Washington GoethalsGeorge Washington Goethals was a United States Army officer and civil engineer, best known for his supervision of construction and the opening of the Panama Canal...
and William C. Gorgas
External links
- Public Welfare Medal National Academy of Sciences web site