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As a student and then a junior fellow at Harvard University,
Lawrence Krauss admired a beautifully engraved chair in the office
of Nobel Laureate Steve Weinberg. Weinberg received the chair
as a winner of American Institute of Physics' Science Writing
in Physics and Astronomy Award in 1977 for The First Three
Minutes.
A quarter century later, a similarly engraved Windsor chair arrived
at Rockefeller Hall as the AIP recognizes Krauss for his book,
Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond
(Little Brown).
The AIP's 2002 Award for Science Writing in Physics and Astronomy
recognizes works published during 2001. Krauss will receive $3,000
and a plaque during the annual meeting of the AIP October 28 in
Williamsburg, Va.
Krauss, CWRU's Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and chair
of the department of physics, narrowly missed the honor in 1994
with Fear of Physics, which was a finalist for the award.
In a congratulatory note, Great Britain's Royal Astronomer Martin
Rees noted the award was "long overdue" and that Krauss "should
have won several times over." Rees won the AIP award in 1996 with
Mitchell Begelman for Gravity's Final Attraction—Black
Holes in the Universe.
"It is a great honor to be recognized with this prize, and I
am particularly happy that Atom was selected, because I think
it was my most ambitious book thus far," Krauss said.
The award joins Krauss' expanding list of honors, which includes
the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award
for the Public Understanding of Science (2000), the American Physical
Society's Lilienfeld Prize (2001) for outstanding contributions
to physics and the communication of science and the American Institute
of Physics' Andrew W. Gemant Award (2001) for linking physics
to the humanities and the arts. By earning these honors, Krauss
now stands within the award-winning circle of some of the past
century's leading physicists, such as Steve Weinberg, Freeman
Dyson, Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Carl Sagan and John Wheeler,
each of whom has won at least one of these prizes. Krauss is the
only scientist to have won them all.
In addition to Atom and Fear of Physics, Krauss
joined the realm of best-selling authors with his non-fiction
science book, The Physics of Star Trek, which sold over
250,000 copies. Following shortly after its publication was Beyond
Star Trek and Quintessence: The Mystery of the Missing Mass in
the Universe, an update of The Fifth Essence (1989)
about our evolving understanding of dark matter in the universe.
Will Krauss repeat his award-winning performance? He says he
has just signed a new book contract. He is closely guarding the
new book's topic, but says it involves cutting-edge science ideas
deeply rooted in popular culture.
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