WASHINGTON-- Today the White House announced the recipients of the
Nation's highest honor for science and technology, naming the recipients
of the 2006 National Medals of Science and Technology.

Both the 2005 and 2006 Medals of Science and Technology will be
presented by President Bush to the Laureates during a White House awards
ceremony on Friday, July 27, 2007.

The National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering
scientific research in a range of fields, including physical,
biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences,
that enhances our understanding of the world and leads to innovations
and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge.
The National Science Foundation administers the award, which was
established by Congress in 1959. For more information about the National
Medal of Science visit www.nsf.gov/nsb/awards/nms/medal.htm

The 2006 National Medal of Science Laureates:

Hyman Bass - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Marvin H. Caruthers - University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Rita R. Colwell - University of Maryland, Bethesda, MD

Peter B. Dervan - California Institute of Technology, San Marino, CA

Nina V. Fedoroff - Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

Daniel Kleppner - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
of Belmont, MA

Robert S. Langer - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
of Newton, MA

Lubert Stryer - Stanford University, Stanford, CA

The National Medal of Technology honors America's leading innovators.
The award is given to individuals, teams, and/or companies/divisions for
their outstanding contributions to the nation's economic, environmental
and social well-being through the development and commercialization of
technology products, processes and concepts; technological innovation;
and development of the Nation's technological manpower. The Department
of Commerce administers the award, which was established by an act of
Congress in 1980. For more information about the National Medal of
Technology visit: http://www.technology.gov/medal/

The 2006 National Medal of Technology Laureates:

Leslie A. Geddes - Purdue University, Lafayette, IN

Paul G. Kaminski - Technovation, Inc., Fairfax Station, VA

Herwig W. Kogelnik - Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs (Murray Hill, NJ) of Fair
Haven, NJ

Charles M. Vest-formerly of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Cambridge, MA) of Arlington, VA

James E. West - The Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), of
Plainfield, NJ

Note: The recipients of the 2005 National Medals of Science and
Technology were announced on May 29 and June 12, 2007, respectively.

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Karl A. Erb, who heads the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, has been named a Chevalier of the French National Order of Merit by the President of the Republic of France.

"This distinction, awarded by the French Government, is a sign of the high esteem my country has for the important contributions you have made throughout your career to the development and enrichment of French-American relations in science and technology," wrote Francois Rivasseau, charge d'affaires at the French embassy in a letter notifying Erb of the award.

The National Order of Merit was founded in 1963 by the late President Charles De Gaulle. While only French nationals are admitted into the Order as such, foreigners may receive the insignia of the Order as a mark of respect. The President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the Order and appoints all other members on the advice of the government.

In his role as head of OPP, Erb oversees the operations of the Division of Arctic Sciences. He also heads the U.S. Antarctic Program, which manages all U.S. research on the southernmost continent.

Erb, a physicist who has previously served as a science adviser to the NSF director and in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said he was extremely proud to have received the honor, but also found it very fitting that it should come during a period when scientific cooperation between nations as part of the International Polar Year (IPY) is an important focus of international relations.

"I would hope that this singular honor reflects not only on my personal contributions to the 'informal diplomacy' of international science, as it were, but also on the very excellent relations the United States has built and enjoys in the realm of scientific and engineering research," he said. "The wonderfully cooperative spirit of our relationship has greatly benefited scientific research in Antarctica."

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Peter West, NSF (703) 292-7761 pwest@nsf.gov

Related Websites
NSF's Office of Polar Programs: http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=OPP
The U.S. government's International Polar Year (IPY) Web portal: http://www.ipy.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of $5.92 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,700 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 42,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 10,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

Receive official NSF news electronically through the e-mail delivery and notification system, MyNSF (formerly the Custom News Service). To subscribe, visit www.nsf.gov/mynsf/ and fill in the information under "new users".

Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

Posted by Physics Today at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

UNM Today: Astrophysicist Lee J. Rickard will direct the assembly and testing of the Long Wavelength Array for the University of New Mexico. Rickard is following up on work he did with the Remote Sensing Division of the Naval Research Laboratory at the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M. in the early 1990’s.

At that time his research group was working to determine whether the “noise” in the ionosphere could be filtered out well enough to do productive research in the lower frequencies of the radio spectrum. Initial results showed it probably can and a new area of scientific research began.

The Long Wavelength Array is a radio telescope designed to allow researchers a way to detect radio waves in the radio frequency range of 10 – 80 MHz passing through the ionosphere. The ionosphere is a part of the atmosphere that begins about 25 miles above the earth and extends outward hundreds of miles. It contains charged particles that allow lower frequency radio waves to be transmitted great distances and has its own ‘weather’ that can disrupt communications and navigation systems.

The initial demonstration instrument, the Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array, is already in place at the VLA in Socorro. It was funded by the Naval Research Laboratory and built by the Applied Research Laboratories of the University of Texas.

Rickard is now searching for sites in southwestern New Mexico for the next 16 instruments. Combined, they will act as a single receiver to give much greater focus and clarity to faint signals.

Opportunities for Students
As the LWA is designed and built, it will offer an unusual opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to become involved in constructing and operating a major astronomical instrument. Rickard says “the kind of electronics we put on the antennas and use for receivers are the sorts of things that students can put together in a laboratory. So what we are looking at is an opportunity to do radio astronomy in a way that students can get a lot more engagement with than they can with the other big facilities.”

At UNM that means working with one of the professors involved with the project. In the Physics and Astronomy Department associate professor Greg Taylor, http://www.phys.unm.edu/~gbtaylor/, professor Jack McIver, who is also Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development, associate professor Patricia Henning, assistant professor Ylva Pihlstrom http://www.phys.unm.edu/~ylva/ and adjunct professors John Dickel and Helene Dickel are all working in some area of the project. Civil Engineering professor Walter Gerstle is involved in engineering aspects, and electrical engineering associate research professor Christopher Watts http://www.ece.unm.edu/~cwatts/ is working on ionospheric studies.

Genesis of an Idea
This project began as an idea in the astrophysics community more than 15 years ago when researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory decided to follow up work by University of Maryland professor Bill Erickson, whose Clark Lake telescope imaged low frequency waves in the radio spectrum. They put a test dipole on the VLA which showed them that a large part of the “noise” in the ionosphere could be filtered enough to warrant a closer look with better instrumentation.

Rickard and other researchers at the NRL proposed a major project through the decadal process at the National Academy of Sciences. That is essentially a strategic planning effort run by the National Research Council to decide what big areas of research warrant major spending by the U.S. Government. The idea was approved and the Long Wavelength Array was launched. That meant the research community backed the idea, and that several institutions were prepared to cooperate in the research.

Three major efforts are now underway to study the ionosphere worldwide. The effort in New Mexico is led by the Southwest Consortium, which includes the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Texas at Austin, the Naval Research Laboratory and Virginia Tech.

Project Timeline
Rickard is now searching for 16 sites in southwestern New Mexico he can use to construct the initial arrays of instruments. Each site will hold several hundred dipoles, which in concert will be used to better focus the available information. Site selection is ongoing, but he plans to have the first site online by the end of 2008 to complete Phase I of the project.

Phase II, expected to last through 2010 will bring another six or seven stations to completion. In Phase III and IV, the remaining stations will be completed and the entire initial project is expected to be running by 2014. But the partially built telescope should be able to do important scientific work even at the earliest construction phases.

If the information provided by the initial array is worthwhile, Rickard says the project may eventually expand to include 50 arrays.

Science Focus
The LWA will have several jobs. Perhaps most important is gaining an understanding of ionospheric ‘weather’ which can disrupt navigation systems like GPS, military communications systems and a variety of other commercial and defense systems.

Researchers will use it to search for the faint and distant traces from the beginning of the universe; to study the distribution of cosmic rays in the Milky Way Galaxy and to search for planets in other solar systems. The system is so flexible that it will allow them to search for transient objects such as gamma ray bursts and study the effects of solar and space weather on the earth.

More information about the LWA is available at Long Wavelength Array.

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