Support of National Awards Promotes Science, Undergraduate Research
Research Corporation for Science Advancement’s commitment to advancing science extends beyond our own programs and awards. Through longtime support of awards and prizes administered by national organizations, RCSA helps advance scientific discovery and promote the importance of undergraduate research.
Established in 1984 by a grant from RCSA, the American Physical Society’s Prize for a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution honors a physicist whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to physics and who has contributed substantially to the professional development of undergraduate physics students.
Recipients starting in 1986 have been Jerry P. Gollub, Roger W. Bland, R. Bruce Partridge, Stuart B. Crampton, Jacob J. Leventhal, Larry R. Hunter, Joseph Trivisonno, Steven Feller, Peter J. Collings, Michael E. Sadler, David Peak, Robert C. Hilborn, Richard W. Peterson, Robert Edson Warner, Donald Thomas Jacobs, Paul DeYoung, James Cederberg, Dhiraj K. Sardar, Nancy Haegel, Murtadha Khakoo, Q. Charles Su, Rainer Grobe, William K. Wootters, Michael R. Brown, James Eckert, Enrique Galvez, Janet Seger, David S. Hall, Mario Affatigato, Thomas Solomon, L. Donald Isenhower, Gregory S. Adkins, Protik K. Majumder, Warren F. Rogers, Robert C. Forrey, Katherine Aidala, Gordon Jones, Derek F. Jackson Kimball. Rae M Robertson-Anderson, and Lars Q. English.
Also established in 1984, the American Chemical Society Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution honors a chemistry faculty member whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to chemistry and to the professional development of undergraduate students.
Recipients starting in 1986 have been Corwin H. Hansch, Harold W. Heine, Michael P. Doyle, Lon B. Knight Jr., Thomas P. Onak, Philip C. Myhre, Mitsuru Kubota, Maria C. Linder, Claude H. Yoder, Joseph Sherma, Norman C. Craig, Gary C. DeFotis, Rabindra N. Roy, James N. Spencer, George B. Kauffman, Robert F. Pasternack, Thomas C. Werner, Ronald L. Christensen, Keith H. Pannell, Phoebe K. Dea, Charles F. Beam, Cheryl D. Stevenson, John T. Gupton, Moses Lee, Thomas J. Wenzel, Gregory J. Grant, David K. Lewis, Nancy S. Mills, Bert E. Holmes, George C. Shields, Thomas E. Goodwin, Maria Hepel, Joseph J. Pesek, Carol A. Parish, Kerry K. Karukstis, Daniel Rabinovich, Chip Nataro, and Maria Alexandra Gomez.
Endowed by Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation in 2014 in honor of former RCSA President John P. Schaefer, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery is given every other year to recognize a high achievement in basic research occurring within the previous five years, and which is expected to have a significant impact within the physical sciences.
Since 2015, the award has been given to Jonathan S. Weissman, Gabriela González, David H. Reitze and Peter R. Saulson, Xiaowei Zhuang, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, and Kevan M. Shokat.
In 2022, RCSA made a gift to establish the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award. The award, in honor of CUR past-president and current RCSA Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco, recognizes tenure-track faculty members within ten years of their first faculty appointment who demonstrate success in the chemical sciences and whose mentoring practices have supported undergraduate research.
Starting in 2023, recipients have been Louise Charkoudian and Shana Stoddard.
