National Award of Nuclear Science & History

National Award of Nuclear Science & History

The National Award of Nuclear Science and History is presented annually by National Atomic Museum Foundation to a prominent person that has had an impact on nuclear issues.  The award celebrates the wide scope of achievement and commitment to furthering scientific endeavor made by individuals in areas of military leadership, medical technology, public policy and government, energy sciences, education and space exploration. 

Admiral Kirkland H. Donald of the US Navy will receive the 2013 National Award of Nuclear Science & History on March 16, 2013. Admiral Donald served as the Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion and Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration's Naval Reactors from November 2004 to November 2012. He previously served as Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and Commander, Submarine Allied Command, Atlantic. Admiral Donald graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1975 with a bachelor of science in ocean engineering. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix and is a graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Senior Executive Fellows Program. He will retire from the U.S. Navy on January 1, 2013, completing over 37 years of dedicated service.  Admiral Donald is being honored as the 16th recipient of the National Award of Nuclear Science & History in recognition of his leadership and service to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

Honorees become members of the International Advisory Council to the museum. Past honorees include:

1998: Dr. Glenn Seaborg, former head of AEC, co-discoverer of Plutonium and medical and nuclear researcher. Dr. Seaborg provided the initiation of this award and granted permission for his name to be used for the entry level Einstein Society membership category.

1999: Robert Henderson, Participant in the Manhattan Project and was an early Sandia Laboratory leader and prominent scientist who also received an academy award for innovations in lighting design.

2000: Gen. Paul W. Tibbetts was the Military Colonel responsible for operations of the 509th Composite Group and pilot of the B-29 Enola Gay that dropped first atomic bomb ending WWII.

2001: Dr. David Kuhl, was inventor of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) a medical scanning technology that lead to broad application of nuclear medical imaging technology.

2002: Sen. Harrison (Jack) Schmitt, honored as the last man to walk on the moon serving as an astronaut on Apollo 17. The Senator was also honored for dealing with arms control treaties and international nuclear proliferation policy.

2003: Dr. Andrew Kadak, honored for work as a prominent senior educator in nuclear engineering practices at the university level leading students to design nuclear power plants that will compete in tomorrow’s world.

2004: Dr. Ines Triay, was honored for community involvement, communication, policy and scientific work with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant project. Dr. Triay was the first woman recipient of the award.

2005: Ambassador C. Paul Robinson, will be honored for work as the leader of Sandia National Labs, for impact on international nuclear non-proliferation accords and involvement in worldwide nuclear energy policy.

2006: Dr. Albert Ghiroso, discoverer or co-discoverer of 12 elements in the Actinide elements in the Periodic Table. Dr. Ghiroso currently works at Lawrence Livermore lab as an emeritus professor; his past activities with notable scientists include work with Dr. Glenn Seaborg and support of early atomic weapon testing verification by USSR.

2007: Mr. Richard Rhodes was honored as historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Making the Atomic Bomb,” later books such as “Dark Sun” and “Arsenals of Folly.”

2008: Senator Pete V. Domenici was honored for his steadfast support of the nuclear power industry as well as support of the national labs and his stance on STEM education. The Senator as been a major supporter of the Museum.

2009: Dr. Patrick Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace and served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada and seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International. Dr. Moore currently serves as Chair and Chief Scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd., a consultancy focusing on environmental policy and communications in forestry, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, mining, biodiversity, chemicals, energy and climate change.

2010: Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D., Nobel Prize Laureate. Gell-Mann is one of today’s most prominent scientists.  He is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute as well as the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, where he joined the faculty in 1955.  In 1969 he received the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He is the author of The Quark and the Jaguar, published in 1994, in which his ideas on simplicity and complexity are presented to a general readership.

2011: Dr. Helmut Engelbrecht, Chief Executive Officer of URENCO Ltd., a world leader in uranium enrichment technology and in the supply of uranium enrichment services, was the first industrialist and the first foreign citizen to receive the National Award for Nuclear Science & History.

2012: Dr. Lisa Randall is an American theoretical physicist and a leading expert on particle physics and cosmology. She is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University, where she works on several of the competing models of string theory in the quest to explain the fabric of the universe. Her most well-known contribution to the field is the Randall-Sundrum model, first published in 1999 with Raman Sundrum.

The Einstein Society Gala is the largest fundraising event for the Museum each year. The evening includes dinner and dancing as well as a silent auction. Proceeds benefit the Museum’s educational programs. For more information, see the information here.