Revelle Cited in White House Ceremony : Science: Prestigious award recognizes his pioneering work in the study of global warming.
Roger D. Revelle, director emeritus of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, was cited at a White House ceremony Tuesday for his pioneering work in the study of global warming.
The 81-year-old Revelle was among 10 individuals presented National Science Medals by President Bush, who called the scientists “the best in the world.”
Seven of the 10 winners of the prestigious citations were from California. Ten other individuals and the Du Pont Co. won National Technology Medals.
Revelle arrived prepared for verbal battle with White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, who is militantly reluctant to commit the United States to measures that would reduce global warming caused by modern industrial pollutants.
But Sununu was not at the ceremony.
“He was supposed to sit next to me, but he didn’t show,” Revelle said with evident disappointment. “The President has got the message, but I wanted to work on Sununu.”
The United States, largely at Sununu’s behest, has watered down international declarations calling for firm targets for reducing pollutants that cause global warming.
Revelle also was cited for his studies of human population growth and global food supplies, interests that followed his initial work in oceanography.
“Oceanography is for young fellows,” said the ecologist who still teaches at UC San Diego.
The Southern California science patriarch was accompanied at the ceremony by his son William, a Northwestern University psychology professor; and three daughters, Carolyn Hufbauer, a Washington urban planner; Mary Pacy of Radcliffe Seminars in Cambridge, Mass., and Ann Shumway of Boston.
Other science honorees from California are:
Herbert W. Boyer, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UC San Francisco, cited for “basic research of the recombinant DNA technology.” The study of the material that transmits genetic characteristics has launched the biotechnology industry.
Daniel E. Koshland Jr., professor of biochemistry at UC Berkeley, for “profoundly influencing the understanding of how proteins function through his induced-fit model of enzyme action.” His studies have led to “deeper understanding of the molecular basis of memory and adaptation.”
John McCarthy, professor of computer science, Stanford University, for “fundamental contributions to computer science and artificial intelligence . . . including the naming and thus the definition of artificial intelligence itself.”
Edwin M. McMillan, professor of physics emeritus, UC Berkeley, for “identification of the first transuranic element, neptunium.”
John D. Roberts, professor of chemistry, Caltech, for “pioneering studies in nuclear magnetic resonance and reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry.”
Patrick Suppes, professor of philosophy, Stanford, for “measurement of subjective probability and utility in uncertain situations; the development and testing of general learning theory; the semantics and syntax of natural language, and the use of interactive computer programs for instruction.”
Only one woman received a science award, Professor Mildred S. Dresselhaus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was cited for engineering studies of electronic properties of metals. Her work, Bush said, established a “prominent place for women in physics and engineering.”
In addition to individuals cited, Du Pont’s chairman, Edgar S. Willard Jr., accepted the award for the company’s “development and commercialization of high-performance man-made polymers such as nylon, neoprene rubber and Teflon.”
