Two UH Manoa scientists among fifteen honored by the National Academy of Sciences

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Jim Manke, (808) 956-6099
UH Manoa Chancellor's Office
Tara Hicks Johnson, (808) 956-3151
Public Information Officer - SOEST
Posted: Jan 20, 2006


The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has selected 15 individuals to receive awards in 2006 to honor their outstanding scientific achievements. Two of them are distinguished scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa — both from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).

Klaus Keil, Interim Dean at SOEST, has been awarded the J. Lawrence Smith Medal "for his pioneering quantitative studies of minerals in meteorites and important contributions to understanding the nature, origin, and evolution of their parent bodies."

Keil has been at UH Manoa since 1990, and has a well-established international reputation as one of the top researchers in his field.

The Smith medal was established by a gift of Sarah Julia Smith in memory of her husband and has been presented once every three years since 1888 to recognize "recent original and meritorious investigations of meteoric bodies." It includes a cash award of $25,000.

Steven M. Stanley, research professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, will receive the Mary Clark Thompson Medal for his analysis of the meaning of shell forms of bivalve mollusks and for his studies, for many kinds of organisms, of patterns of large-scale evolution and extinction in relation to global environmental changes of the geologic past.

Stanley has been at UH Manoa since the fall 2005 semester. He was previously a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

The Thompson Medal is also awarded every three years; a cash prize of $15,000 goes with the honor "to recognize important services to geology and paleontology." It was established by a gift of Mary Clark Thompson and has been presented since 1921.

"The recognition of Drs. Keil and Stanley is further evidence of the ability of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa to attract and retain some of the brightest and best faculty in the country," said Manoa Vice Chancellor for Research Gary Ostrander. "It is truly noteworthy that these creators of ʻnew knowledge‘ are also teaching and mentoring our students."

"Professors Keil and Stanley are richly deserving of this recognition, and to have two scientists from the same school receive these awards in the same year is truly remarkable and a tremendous honor for UH Manoa," said UHM Chancellor Denise Konan. "These awards are a measure of the high regard in which our research enterprise is held by the nation‘s scientific community.

Recipients will be honored at a ceremony on April 23 in Washington, D.C., during the Academy's 143rd annual meeting.

About the National Academy of Sciences: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. It was created by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Its members serve as principal science advisors to the U.S. Government. The Academy‘s service to government has become so essential that Congress and the White House have issued legislation and executive orders over the years that reaffirm its unique role.