Obama presented the National Medals of Science and Technology
Dear friends of women in science,
This year, one woman was awarded a National Medal of Science (Jacqueline Barton of Caltech) and one woman was awarded the National Medal of Technology (Yvonne Brill, RCA Astro Electonics). There were four men receiving the technology medals and five men receiving the science medals. Barton discovered a long range electron transfer process in DNA that depends on its structure and mediates DNA repair. Brill won for her innovations in rocket propulsion and low earth orbit communications satellites (see transcript of event here).
President Obama also mentioned the fact that Shree Bose and the other winners of the Google Science Fair were girls. He was giving kudos to these young women, but I felt a little sorry that the crowd responses to their achievements, as noted in the transcript of the awards, was "(laughter)."
Here is my favorite part of President Obama's speech at this event: "As the men and the women on this stage will tell you, nobody gets here on their own. Each of them succeeded because they had a great teacher, a great mentor, or a great partner." We all know how important these inspiring people are, and he went on to say that the awardees are in turn mentoring young people.
Congratulations to all of the winners and especially to the women. Add them to the list of women in science that you know, if you didn't know about them already!
cheers,
Laura
Dear Laura,
Your kids are right about your weak sense of humor, but you are right too, sort of. I wish that several of those (laughter) pauses were (applause) pauses too. But some of them were the kind of self-deprecating humor Obama is famous for...so cut the guy some slack. At least he mentioned these fabulous upcoming women in science!
MZ
Hi A B Popejoy,
Thanks, yes there was applause. But there was also (laughter). I'm going to quote from the transcript to let the readers decide what to think, because my kids say I have no sense of humor, so my reactions may well be off:
"Because that next generation is already coming; they’re already knocking on the door. A couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to meet the winners of the Google Science Fair. I want to point out that all three of them were girls. (Applause.) They had beat out 10,000 other applicants from over 90 countries. So I had them over to the Oval Office, and they explained their projects to me, and I pretended that I understood. (Laughter.)
One of the winners, Shree Bose, did her first experiment in second grade by trying to turn spinach blue. (Laughter.) In fourth grade, she built a remote-controlled garbage can. And for this science fair, at the age of 17, she discovered a promising new way to improve treatment for ovarian cancer -- at 17. And she also told me very matter-of-factly that she’ll be going to medical school and getting a doctorate, and I suspect she will do so. (Laughter.) She did not lack confidence."
cheers,
Laura
Just a quick clarification -- there was not laughter, but APPLAUSE when the President mentioned the three Google Science winners!!!
I really like getting new names of great women in science to put on my list. Maybe next time you give us the five minute challenge, I can do the women almost as fast as the men. Last time, I had NO trouble with the men, but the women...I didn't get five in five minutes. They are just not as visible. But these should be. Geez, a rocket scientist for crying out loud! That I'd never heard of!
EMR
