Leo Szilard Lectureship Award

Der Leo Szilard Lectureship Award ist ein jährlich von der American Physical Society vergebener Wissenschaftspreis. Benannt ist er nach dem ungarisch-deutsch-amerikanischen Physiker und Molekularbiologen Leó Szilárd. Erstmals vergeben wurde er 1974, damals noch undotiert und unter der Bezeichnung Leo Szilard Award. Mit finanzieller Unterstützung unter anderem von der Packard- und der MacArthur-Stiftung wird seit 1998 ein Preisgeld vergeben: zunächst 1000 US-Dollar beträgt es, Stand 2017, 3000 Dollar. Darüber hinaus erhält der Preisträger eine finanzielle Unterstützung zum Halten von Vorträgen.

Ausgezeichnet werden Personen, die sich in der Anwendung wissenschaftlicher physikalischer Erkenntnisse zum Nutzen der Allgemeinheit hervorgetan haben, insbesondere in den Bereichen Umweltschutz, Rüstungskontrolle und Wissenschaftspolitik. Der Preis hat die Form eines Delphins, dies nimmt Bezug auf eine Kurzgeschichte von Szilárd namens Die Stimme der Delphine.

Liste der Preisträger

Paul G. Richards
Siegfried S. Hecker
Geoffrey West
France A. Córdova
Michael E. Mann

Weblinks

Auf dieser Seite verwendete Medien

Paul G. Richards at CTBTO Science and Technology conference.jpg
Autor/Urheber: The Official CTBTO Photostream, Lizenz: CC BY 2.0

8 June 2011 - Vienna

Paul G. Richards delivering a presentation on the effects of non-isotopic explosion sources upon the utility of the Ms-mb discriminant at the Science and Technology conference 2011.

Copyright CTBTO Preparatory Commission

Photographer: Marianne Weiss
Mann4.jpg
Autor/Urheber: Greg Grieco, Lizenz: CC BY 3.0
Michael E. Mann in 2010.
Geoffrey West.jpg
Autor/Urheber: Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA, Lizenz: CC BY 2.0

Geoffrey West, President of the Santa Fe Institute.

"As animals get bigger, from tiny shrew to huge blue whale, pulse rates slow down and life spans stretch out longer, conspiring so that the number of heartbeats during an average stay on Earth tends to be roughly the same, around a billion. A mouse just uses them up more quickly than an elephant."

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/45848665">More biological thoughts</a> from Geoffrey West, President of the Santa Fe Institute.

He recently extended his scaling law analyses from the organism to societies, finding economy of scale analogies in the phenomena of cities. But unlike biology, the exponent is greater than one, implying accelerating growth.

“Cities are where ideas are born… and that is a far more powerful growth stimulant than economies of scale. The presence of qualified professions and entrepreneurs constitutes a reason for a place to grow. If you can create a place that is exciting intellectually, that tends to attract more people. The findings are surprising because they suggest that cities follow growth trajectories that have no biological counterpart. This year, for the first time, more people will live in cities than in rural areas, according to UN projections. At this tipping point in human history, it is worth trying to understand the mechanisms behind urbanisation and where it is headed.” (From <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19426051.400-ideas-the-lifeblood-of-cities.html">New Scientist</a>)

“While most of us imagine idyllic rural America as the epitome of sustainable living, conventional wisdom is exactly backward. Cities are bastions of environmentalism. People who live in densely populated places lead environmentally friendly lives. They consume fewer resources per person and take up less space. And because efficiency scales with the size of the population, big cities are always more efficient than small cities. Bottom line: The secret to creating a more environmentally sustainable society is making our big cities bigger. We need more metropolises. The researchers also found that as cities got bigger, each individual got more productive. A doubling of population led to a more than doubling of creative and economic output.” (excerpts from <a href="http://www.ceosforcities.org/conversations/blog/2007/07/the_living_city.php">Seed</a>, Aug 2007)

(I wanted to test the little camera on my new crackberry, so it was a spontaneous moment...)
Siegfried Hecker in 2011.jpg
Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller speaks with Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker about "Arms Control in the Information Age" at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) in Stanford, California, on October 27, 2011. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]