History of Prizes
The Academy awards prizes that recognize excellence in the sciences and the humanities and a commitment to the ideals of the Academy. Recipients of the awards are often, but not always, members of the Academy. Information about the prizes and past recipients below:
Ruth Lehmann and Gertrud M. Schüpbach for discoveries that have significantly advanced their own fields and contributed to knowledge and progress in areas including DNA repair, embryonic development, RNA regulation, and stem cell research.
Gertrud M. Schüpbach and Ruth Lehmann for discoveries that have significantly advanced their own fields and contributed to knowledge and progress in areas including DNA repair, embryonic development, RNA regulation, and stem cell research.
Prize press release.
Honoree introduction and remarks.
Barbara Jean Meyer, University of California, Berkeley, for her breakthrough solutions to long-standing mysteries about chromosomal expression and sex determination.
Whitehead Institute, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for pioneering work on the genetic basis of male sex determination.
David L. Garbers, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, for discovery and identification of factors that regulate sperm function.
Beatrice Mintz, The Institute for Cancer Research, Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for contributions to reproductive biology and cell differentiation.
Henry Lardy, University of Wisconsin, for work on the metabolism and function of spermatozoa.
Susumu Ohno, Division of Biology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California, for fundamental contributions to the biology of sex chromosomes and sex-linked genes.
Elwood Vernon Jensen, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, for pioneering studies of the mode of action of estrogenic hormones.
Mary Frances Lyon, FRS, Head, Genetics Section, Medical Research Council Radiobiology Unit, Harwell, England, for genetic discoveries relating to mammalian sex chromosomes.
Jean D. Wilson, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas, for contributions to the understanding of androgenic hormones and their relation to human disease.
Karl Sune Betlof Bergström, Karolinska Institutet, for structural analysis of the prostaglandins and characterizing the prostaglandins as C20 acids of a novel type.
Min Chueh Chang, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Worcester, Massachusetts, for work in the physiology of reproduction and the capacitation of spermatozoa.
Howard Guy Williams-Ashman, Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, for his research in the biochemistry of reproduction and the uncovering of novel biological macromolecule and enzymic processes.
Geoffrey Wingfield Harris, University of Oxford, England, for pioneering work in the field of glandular physiology, particularly on the role of the brain in regulating the functions of the pituitary gland, opening to research a vast new field of neuroendocrinology.
Hans Henriksen Ussing, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for important contributions to renal and electrolyte physiology and for his ingenious studies on the transport and hormonal regulation of sodium and water across isolated frog skin, which has led to a new understanding of the transport processes that are basic to the functioning of the human kidney.
J. Hartwell Harrison, David M. Hume, and Joseph E. Murray, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, for their surgical finesse in developing the technique of renal transplantation in humans.
J. Hartwell Harrison, David M. Hume, and Joseph E. Murray, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, for their surgical finesse in developing the technique of renal transplantation in humans.
John P. Merrill, Benjamin F. Miller, and George W. Thorn, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, for their imaginative handling of the medical problems connected with the management of renal failure and kidney transplantation.
John P. Merrill, Benjamin F. Miller, and George W. Thorn, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, for their imaginative handling of the medical problems connected with the management of renal failure and kidney transplantation.
Choh Hao Li, University of California, Berkeley, California, for his work on the relation of the anterior pituitary hormones to the maintenance and functioning of the human reproductive organs.
Terence J. Millin, the Queen's Gate Clinic, London, England, for his valuable contribution to surgery by devising and developing the technique of retropubic prostatectomy for benign hyperplasia of the prostate and for adapting this technique to radical prostatectomy and vesiculectomy for the cure of cancer of the prostate.
Lawson Wilkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, in recognition of his significant contributions to fundamental knowledge of growth and development of secondary sex characteristics in men and his brilliant application of adrenal cortical hormone to their management and treatment.
Charles Brenton Huggins, Chicago, Illinois, for his studies on the prostate gland, on the influence of several hormones on prostatic secretion, and on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer of the prostate that have brought relief to many men.
Selman Abraham Waksman, New Brunswick, New Jersey, for his discovery of streptomycin, an antibiotic agent that has proved to be of great value in the treatment of infections common to the urinary passage.
Carl Richard Moore, Chicago, Illinois, for his studies of the physiology of spermatozoa and of the male reproductive tract of mammals. His work has demonstrated important influences of hormonal secretions of the male sex glands on the behavior of other components of the male reproductive apparatus.
Hugh Hampton Young, Baltimore, Maryland, for devising the operation of total prostatectomy by the perineal approach. Through this technique, obstruction to the outlet of the urinary bladder caused by cancer of the prostate gland is relieved without interfering with the normal function of the bladder.
Jerrold Meinwald, Cornell University, for his dedication and service to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Martha C. Nussbaum, philosopher, classicist, political theorist, and public intellectual
Honoree remarks - A Philosophical Approach to Anger and Fear
Charles L. Bennett, Johns Hopkins University
For his contributions to the field of cosmology.
Award event video
Award event article
For their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics:
Ernst Bamberg, Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Ed Boyden, MIT
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University
Peter Hegemann, Humboldt University
Gero Miesenböck, University of Oxford
Georg Nagel, University of Wuerzburg
Press release online.
For their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics.
Ernst Bamberg, Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Ed Boyden, MIT
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University
Peter Hegemann, Humboldt University
Gero Miesenböck, University of Oxford
Georg Nagel, University of Wuerzburg
Press release online.
For their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics:
Ernst Bamberg, Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Ed Boyden, MIT
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University
Peter Hegemann, Humboldt University
Gero Miesenböck, University of Oxford
Georg Nagel, University of Wuerzburg
Press release online.
For their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics:
Ernst Bamberg, Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Ed Boyden, MIT
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University
Peter Hegemann, Humboldt University
Gero Miesenböck, University of Oxford
Georg Nagel, University of Wuerzburg
Press release online.
For their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics:
Ernst Bamberg, Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Ed Boyden, MIT
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University
Peter Hegemann, Humboldt University
Gero Miesenböck, University of Oxford
Georg Nagel, University of Wuerzburg
Press release online.
For their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics:
Ernst Bamberg, Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Ed Boyden, MIT
Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University
Peter Hegemann, Humboldt University
Gero Miesenböck, University of Oxford
Georg Nagel, University of Wuerzburg
Press release online.
For their contributions to the field of laser technology:
Federico Capasso, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Alfred Cho, Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs
For their efforts to reduce the global threat of nuclear weapons:
Sidney D. Drell, Stanford University
Sam Nunn, Nuclear Threat Initiative
William J. Perry, Stanford University
George P. Shultz, Stanford University
For their efforts to reduce the global threat of nuclear weapons:
Sidney D. Drell, Stanford University
Sam Nunn, Nuclear Threat Initiative
William J. Perry, Stanford University
George P. Shultz, Stanford University
For their efforts to reduce the global threat of nuclear weapons:
Sidney D. Drell, Stanford University
Sam Nunn, Nuclear Threat Initiative
William J. Perry, Stanford University
George P. Shultz, Stanford University
James R. Norris and Joseph J. Katz, Chicago, Illinois, in conjunction with George Feher of San Diego, California for contributions to understanding photosynthesis.
Robert B. Leighton, Pasadena, California, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Frank J. Low, Tucson, Arizona, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Gerry Neugebauer, Pasadena, California, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Robert B. Leighton, Pasadena, California, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Frank J. Low, Tucson, Arizona, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Gerry Neugebauer, Pasadena, California, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Robert B. Leighton, Pasadena, California, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Frank J. Low, Tucson, Arizona, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Gerry Neugebauer, Pasadena, California, for contributions to the development of infrared astronomy.
Hans Georg Dehmelt, Seattle, Washington, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Martin Deutsch, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Vernon Willard Hughes, New Haven, Connecticut, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Norman Foster Ramsey, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Hans Georg Dehmelt, Seattle, Washington, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Martin Deutsch, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Vernon Willard Hughes, New Haven, Connecticut, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Norman Foster Ramsey, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Hans Georg Dehmelt, Seattle, Washington, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Martin Deutsch, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Vernon Willard Hughes, New Haven, Connecticut, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Norman Foster Ramsey, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Hans Georg Dehmelt, Seattle, Washington, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Martin Deutsch, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Vernon Willard Hughes, New Haven, Connecticut, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Norman Foster Ramsey, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for contributions to atomic spectroscopy.
Gregorio Weber, Urbana, Illinois, for his work on the theory and application of fluorescence.
Chen Ning Yang, Stony Brook, New York, for development of a generalized gauge invariant field theory.
Robert Mills, Columbus, Ohio, for development of a generalized gauge invariant field theory.
Bruno Rossi, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his discoveries concerning the nature and origins of cosmic radiations.
E. Bright Wilson, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his early recognition of the importance of symmetry properties in polyatomic molecules and for his active and pioneering development of microwave spectroscopy.
Maarten Schmidt, Pasadena, California, for his discoveries in the spectra of quasi-stellar objects.
Robert Henry Dicke, Princeton, New Jersey, for his contributions to microwave radiometry and to the understanding of atomic structure.
Cornelis B. Van Niel, Stanford, California, for his contributions to the understanding of photosynthesis.
Samuel Cornette Collins, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his invention of the Collins Helium Cryostat and his pioneer work in low-temperature research.
William David McElroy, Baltimore, Maryland, in recognition of his work on the molecular basis of bioluminescence.
Hans Albrecht Bethe, Ithaca, New York, for his theoretical studies of energy production in stars.
George Wald, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his studies on the biochemical basis of vision.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Williams Bay, Wisconsin, for his work on the radiative transfer of energy in the interior of stars.
Willis E. Lamb, Jr., Stanford, California, for his studies of the atomic hydrogen spectrum.
Lars Onsager, New Haven, Connecticut, for his contribution to the thermodynamics of transport processes.
Ira Sprague Bowen, Pasadena, California, for his solution of the mystery of nebulium and for other outstanding work in spectroscopy.
Edmund Newton Harvey, Princeton, New Jersey, for his fundamental investigations of the nature of bioluminescence.
Edwin Herbert Land, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his new applications in polarized light and photography.
Charles Edward Mees, Rochester, New York, for his contributions to the science of photography.
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, Princeton, New Jersey, for his invention of the iconoscope and other television devices.
George Russell Harrison, Belmont, Massachusetts, for his improvements in spectroscopic technique.
William Weber Coblentz, Washington, DC, for his pioneering work in the technology and measurement of heat and light.
Harlow Shapley, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for research on the luminosity of stars and galaxies.
Karl Taylor Compton, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for research in thermionics and spectroscopy.
Edward Leamington Nichols, Ithaca, New York, for his research in spectrophotometry.
Arthur Holly Compton, Chicago, Illinois, for his research in Roentgen rays.
Henry Norris Russell, Princeton, New Jersey, for his research in stellar radiation.
Irving Langmuir, Schenectady, New York, for his research in thermionic and allied phenomena.
Theodore Lyman, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his research on light of very short wavelength.
Percy Willliams Bridgeman, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his thermodynamic research at extremely high pressures.
Charles Greeley Abbot, Washington, DC, for his research on solar radiation.
William David Coolidge, Schenectady, New York, for his invention of ductile tungsten and its application in the production of radiation.
Joel Stebbins, Urbana, Illinois, for his development of the selenium photometer and its application to astronomical problems.
Frederic Eugene Ives, Woodcliff-on-Hudson, New York, for his optical inventions, particularly in color photography and photoengraving.
James Madison Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts, for his research in high-temperature thermometry and the exact determination of new fixed points on the thermometric scale.
Robert Williams Wood, Baltimore, Maryland, for his discoveries in light, and particularly for his research on the optical properties of sodium and other metallic vapors.
George Ellery Hale, Chicago, Illinois, for his investigations in solar and stellar physics and in particular for the invention and perfection of the spectro-heliograph.
Elihu Thomson, Lynn, Massachusetts, for his inventions in electric welding and lighting.
Charles Francis Brush, Cleveland, Ohio, for the practical development of electric arc-lighting.
James Edward Keeler, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, for his application of the spectroscope to astronomical problems, and especially for his investigations of the proper motions of the nebulae and the physical constitution of the rings of the planet Saturn by the use of that instrument.
Edward Charles Pickering, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his work on the photometry of the stars and upon stellar spectra.
Albert Abraham Michelson, Cleveland, Ohio, for his determination of the velocity of light, for his research on the motion of the luminferous ether, and for his work on the absolute determination of the wavelengths of light.
Samuel Pierpont Langley, Allegheny, Philadelphia, for his research in radiant energy.
Henry Augustus Rowland, Baltimore, Maryland, for his research in light and heat.
Josiah Willard Gibbs, New Haven, Connecticut, for his research in thermodynamics.
John William Draper, New York, New York, for his research on radiant energy.
Alvan Clark, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for his improvements in the manufacture of refracting telescopes, as exhibited in his method of local correction.
Daniel Treadwell, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for improvements in the management of heat, embodied in his investigations and inventions relating to the construction of cannon of large caliber, and great strength and endurance.
Robert Hare, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for his invention of the "compound" or "oxyhydrogen" blowpipe.
Arda Collins is a candidate in the Ph.D. program in poetry at the University of Denver. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Glenn Schaeffer Fellow. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, A Public Space, The American Poetry Review and elsewhere. Her collection of poems, It Is Daylight won the 2008 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, and is forthcoming from Yale University Press.
Matthew Dickman is the author of "All-American Poem," winner of the 2008 APR/Honickman first book prize from the American Poetry Review and Copper Canyon Press. His work has recently appeared in Tin House, The Boston Review, The American Poetry Review, Dossier Magazine, and The New Yorker. He has received fellowships or residencies from Oregon Literary Arts, the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, the Breadloaf Writers Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
An assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Martin is a founding member of the Black Took Collective, a group of experimental black poets; co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation; and co-editor of The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism (Anchor Books, 2004). Her books include The Morning Hour, a collection of poems that was selected in 2003 for the Poetry Society of America’s National Chapbook Fellowship, and A Matter of Gathering / A Gathering of Matter (University of Georgia Press, 2007), which won the 2006 Cave Canem Book Prize. Her work has appeared in Hambone, FENCE, nocturnes, Encyclopedia, and Callaloo.
O’Rourke grew up in Brooklyn, where she now lives. After earning her B.A. from Yale University in 1997, she joined The New Yorker as an editorial assistant and became an editor there in 2000. In 2005 she was named poetry co-editor of the Paris Review. She is the 2005 recipient of the Union League Civil and Arts Award. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Kenyon Review, Poetry, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. Her first book of poems, Halflife, was published by W. W. Norton in 2007.
Zapruder is the author of two collections of poetry: American Linden, published by Tupelo Press in 2002; and The Pajamaist, published by Copper Canyon in 2006. The Pajamaist was winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and was chosen by Library Journal as one of the top ten poetry volumes of 2006. German and Slovenian language editions of his poems are forthcoming from Luxbooks and Serpa Editions. Luxbooks is also publishing a separate German language graphic novel version of the poem "The Pajamaist." An editor for Wave Books, Zapruder teaches in the low residency MFA program at the University of California, Riverside-Palm Desert and at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In 2007 he was a Lannan Literary Fellow in Marfa Texas. He lives in San Francisco.
Morton L. Mandel, Business Leader, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, and Dedicated Public Servant.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, extraordinary service to the Academy, the community, and the nation
Louis W. Cabot, captain of industry, philanthropist, and valued advisor to business, government and civic organizations
William T. Golden, visionary statesman, respected adviser, munificent patron of science and culture, and trusted friend and mentor to generations of men and women
Joan Wallach Scott, Institute for Advanced Study (History)
Honoree remarks - On Free Speech and Academic Freedom.
Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University (Psychology)
Honoree remarks - Two Systems in the Mind.