William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
Encyclopedia
The William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement is an award given by Sigma Xi
, a scientific-research honor society. The Procter Prize is presented annually to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to scientific research and has demonstrated an ability to communicate the significance of this research to scientists in other disciplines.
The prize consists of a Steuben glass
sculpture and $5,000. In addition, each recipient is asked to designate a younger scholar, usually working in the same field, to receive a $5,000 Grant-in-Aid of Research. Presentation of the Procter Prize is traditionally a principal event at the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting, where the recipient delivers the Procter Prize Address.
The Prize is named for William Procter
, an heir of one of the founders of the Procter and Gamble Company
. He was active in Sigma Xi and its affiliated organization, the Research Society of America (RESA), and endowed the award that bears his name in 1950, the year before he died.
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential...
, a scientific-research honor society. The Procter Prize is presented annually to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to scientific research and has demonstrated an ability to communicate the significance of this research to scientists in other disciplines.
The prize consists of a Steuben glass
Steuben Glass Works
Steuben Glass Works was an American art glass manufacturer, founded in the summer of 1903 by Fredrick C. Carder and Thomas G. Hawkes in Corning, New York, which is in Steuben County, from which the company name was derived. Hawkes was the owner of the largest cut glass firm then operating in Corning...
sculpture and $5,000. In addition, each recipient is asked to designate a younger scholar, usually working in the same field, to receive a $5,000 Grant-in-Aid of Research. Presentation of the Procter Prize is traditionally a principal event at the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting, where the recipient delivers the Procter Prize Address.
The Prize is named for William Procter
William Cooper Procter
William Cooper Procter was the grandson of William Procter, the co-founder of Procter & Gamble Company. He was notable for creating a profit-sharing program for employees, the first in America...
, an heir of one of the founders of the Procter and Gamble Company
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
. He was active in Sigma Xi and its affiliated organization, the Research Society of America (RESA), and endowed the award that bears his name in 1950, the year before he died.
Previous winners
- 2010 – Michael J. Spivey
- 2009 – Deborah S. JinDeborah S. JinDeborah S. Jin is a physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology ; Professor Adjoint, Department of Physics at the University of Colorado; a fellow of the JILA, a NIST joint laboratory with the University of Colorado. In 2003, Dr. Jin's team at JILA made the first fermionic...
- 2008 – Charles ElachiCharles ElachiCharles Asshur Al-Wadad Elachi is the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory , located in Pasadena, California. He has held this position since May 1, 2001 and also holds professorships in electrical engineering and planetary science at Caltech....
- 2007 – Stuart L. Pimm
- 2006 – Susan L. Lindquist
- 2005 – Bjarne StroustrupBjarne StroustrupBjarne Stroustrup ; born December 30, 1950 in Århus, Denmark) is a Danish computer scientist, most notable for the creation and the development of the widely used C++ programming language...
- 2004 – Murray Gell-MannMurray Gell-MannMurray Gell-Mann is an American physicist and linguist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles...
- 2003 – Darleane Hoffman
- 2002 – Benoit MandelbrotBenoît MandelbrotBenoît B. Mandelbrot was a French American mathematician. Born in Poland, he moved to France with his family when he was a child...
- 2001 – Alexander RichAlexander RichAlexander Rich, MD is a biologist and biophysicist. He is the William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at MIT and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rich earned both an A.B. and an M.D. from Harvard University. He was a post-doc of Linus Pauling along with James Watson...
- 2000 – Francisco AyalaFrancisco J. AyalaFrancisco José Ayala Pereda is a Spanish-American biologist and philosopher at the University of California, Irvine. He is a former Dominican priest, ordained in 1960, but left the priesthood that same year. After graduating from the University of Salamanca, he moved to the US in 1961 to study for...
- 1999 – Lynn MargulisLynn MargulisLynn Margulis was an American biologist and University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles, and her contributions to the endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted...
- 1998 – Carl DjerassiCarl DjerassiCarl Djerassi is an Austrian-American chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his contribution to the development of the first oral contraceptive pill . Djerassi is emeritus professor of chemistry at Stanford University.He participated in the invention in 1951, together with Mexican Luis E...
- 1997 – Philip MorrisonPhilip MorrisonPhilip Morrison, was Institute Professor Emeritus and Professor of Physics Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .-Early life and education:...
- 1997 – Edward O. Wilson
- 1996 – Jane GoodallJane GoodallDame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
- 1995 – Michael E. DeBakeyMichael E. DeBakeyMichael Elias DeBakey was a world-renowned Lebanese-American cardiac surgeon, innovator, scientist, medical educator, and international medical statesman...
- 1994 – Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
- 1993 – Walter H. StockmayerWalter H. StockmayerWalter Hugo Stockmayer was an internationally known chemist and university teacher. A former member of the National Academy of Sciences, he was recognized as one of the twentieth century pioneers of polymer science...
- 1991 – Leon Lederman
- 1990 – Robert BallardRobert BallardRobert Duane Ballard is a former United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology. He is most famous for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989,...
- 1989 – Janet RowleyJanet RowleyJanet Davison Rowley is an American human geneticist and the first scientist to identify a chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers....
- 1988 – Sir John KendrewJohn KendrewSir John Cowdery Kendrew, CBE, FRS was an English biochemist and crystallographer who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz; their group in the Cavendish Laboratory investigated the structure of heme-containing proteins.-Biography:He was born in Oxford, son of Wilford George...
- 1987 – James Van AllenJames Van AllenJames Alfred Van Allen was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa.The Van Allen radiation belts were named after him, following the 1958 satellite missions in which Van Allen had argued that a Geiger counter should be used to detect charged particles.- Life and career :* September...
- 1986 – Thomas EisnerThomas EisnerThomas Eisner was a German-American entomologist and ecologist, known as the "father of chemical ecology."He was a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell University, and Director of the Cornell Institute for Research in Chemical Ecology...
- 1985 – George C. PimentelGeorge C. PimentelGeorge Claude Pimentel was the inventor of the chemical laser. He also developed the modern technique of matrix isolation in low-temperature chemistry. In theoretical chemistry, he proposed the three-centre four-electron bond which is now accepted as the best simple model of hypervalent...
- 1984 – Victor F. Weisskopf
- 1983 – Winona Vernberg and John Vernberg
- 1982 – Joshua LederbergJoshua LederbergJoshua Lederberg ForMemRS was an American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and...
- 1981 – George W. Beadle
- 1980 – Herbert A. Simon
- 1979 – Saunders MacLane
- 1978 – Russell W. PetersonRussell W. PetersonRussell Wilbur "Russ" Peterson was an American scientist and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He served as Governor of Delaware as a member of the Republican Party...
- 1977 – William NierenbergWilliam NierenbergWilliam Aaron Nierenberg was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1965 through 1986. He was a co-founder of the George C. Marshall Institute in 1984.- Background :Nierenberg was born on February 13, 1919, at 213 E...
- 1976 – Morris CohenMorris CohenMorris Cohen may refer to:*Morris Cohen , "Morris "Two-Gun" Cohen". Adventurer who became a bodyguard for Sun Yat-sen*Morris Cohen , American Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
- 1975 – Dixy Lee RayDixy Lee RayDixy Lee Ray was the 17th Governor of the U.S. State of Washington. She was Washington's first female governor.-Early years:...
- 1974 – Percy Lavon Julian
- 1973 – William O. BakerWilliam O. BakerWilliam Oliver Baker was a former President of Bell Labs who had advised five Presidents on scientific matters. He received his degree from Washington College and went on to get a doctorate from Princeton University, studying under Charles Phelps Smyth...
- 1972 – Lewis M. BranscombLewis M. BranscombLewis M. Branscomb is an American physicist, government policy advisor, and corporate research manager. He is best known as former head of the National Bureau of Standards and, later, chief scientist of IBM; and as a prolific writer on science policy issues.Following World War II service in the...
- 1971 – Jacob E. Goldman
- 1970 – Lloyd M. Cooke
- 1969 – Margaret MeadMargaret MeadMargaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
- 1968 – Athelstan SpilhausAthelstan SpilhausAthelstan Frederick Spilhaus was a South African-American geophysicist and oceanographer. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He became a US citizen in 1946...
- 1967 – Abel WolmanAbel WolmanAbel Wolman was an American inventor, scientist, professor and pioneer of modern sanitary engineering. His work in supplying clean water spanned eight decades.-Background:...
- 1966 – Elmer Engstrom
- 1965 – William H. Pickering
- 1964 – Hugh S. Taylor
- 1963 – Edwin H. LandEdwin H. LandEdwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision...
- 1962 – Joel H. Hildebrand
- 1961 – Edward Ray Weidlein
- 1960 – Alan Tower 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 – Charles Stark DraperCharles Stark DraperCharles Stark Draper was an American scientist and engineer, often referred to as "the father of inertial navigation." He was the founder and director of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, later renamed the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, which under his direction designed and built the Apollo...
- 1958 – Chauncey Guy SuitsChauncey Guy SuitsChauncey Guy Suits , often known as C. Guy Suits, was a distinguished director of the General Electric Research Laboratory, and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering....
- 1957 – Crawford H. Greenwalt
- 1956 – Lawrence R. Hafstad
- 1955 – Robert R. WilliamsRobert R. WilliamsRobert Runnels Williams was an American chemist, known for being the first to synthesize thiamine . He first isolated thiamine in 1933, and synthesized vitamin B in 1935. Among his awards were the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1940 and the Perkin Medal in 1947.-Life:He was born in Nellore, India to...
- 1954 – 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...
- 1953 – David Barnard Steinman
- 1952 – Shields Warren
- 1951 – Ernest O. Lawrence
- 1950 – Karl Compton