Paul C. Lauterbur

Paul C. Lauterbur received his B.S. from Case Institute of Technology in 1951 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962. From 1963 to 1984, he was on the faculty of the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he served as a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Radiology. During this period, Lauterbur worked on NMR spectroscopy and its applications to the studies of the structures of molecules, solutions, and solids. He also extended his NMR studies to applications in biochemistry and biophysics when he discovered nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.

Ralph J. Cicerone

Ralph J. Cicerone has made fundamental contributions to research about greenhouse gases and ozone depletion, and also been a leader in advancing public policy to protect the global environment. The Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science goes to a distinguished scientist of any nationality for outstanding work in the physical or life sciences and carries a prize of $250,000.

Information as of 1999

Paul Baran

Born in Poland, at the age of two, Baran arrived in the U.S. with his immigrant parents. He spent his formative years in Philadelphia, attending Drexel Institute of Technology (later Drexel University) and graduated in 1949. He now resides in Atherton, California and is Chairman of the Board of Com21, Incorporated, which he founded in 1992. This company is now the largest supplier of cable modem systems in Europe and #3 in the US.

Paul B. MacCready

It is most appropriate that on the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' achievement of sustained powered flight, the Bower Award in the field of aviation goes to Paul MacCready, internationally known as the "father of human-powered flight" for the successful flights of the Gossamer Condor, for which he won the Franklin Institute 1979 Longstreth Award, and the Gossamer Albatross, which stayed aloft for 3 hours.

John W. Cahn

John W. Cahn received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1949 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1953 from the University of California at Berkeley. He has received two honorary degrees: Sc.D. (hon.) from Northwestern University in 1990 and D. Hon. Causes, from the University Decry, France, 1996.