Newswise — SANTA BARBARA, Calif -- May 17, 2021 -- Leaders spearheading the creation of Covid-19 vaccines and the development of AI-powered medical pattern recognition tools will be among those recognized at virtual awards ceremony for the 2021 Alexandra Jane Noble (AJN) Awards on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. The 2021 winners will be profiled and presented with their awards and be invited to give a short presentation about their work.
The prestigious science communication award from Novim recognizes innovations contributing to world health, social impact, increasing awareness and new discovery. Novim is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making complex scientific issues more comprehensible to non-scientists.
Novim’s founder and CEO, Michael Ditmore and Chuck House, the AJN Awards director will host the awards event.
House said after a year that will long be etched in mankind's memory it was especially important to celebrate significant contributions to science communication. "The rapidity of the pandemic onset, and the unknowns surrounding it, have been a test-case for the world as desperate steps were taken using both current tools and newly-developed methods to combat this fearsome intruder. In a world too often led by science-deniers, science suddenly became the basis for enlightened discussion," said House. "We congratulate all of this year's winners, whose innovations and commitment to effectively communicating science will have a lasting impact on society and serve as an inspiration to future generations."
This year's winners are:
Science Awareness Award – Dr. Vin Gupta, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Science Discovery Award – Pattern Computer Inc. and Mr. Mark Anderson, CEO.
Science Impact Award – Dr. Katalin Karikó, BioNTech, and Dr. Drew Weissman, University of Pennsylvania.
Science and Society Award – Dr. Marian Croak, Google, and Eric S. Yuan and Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
Science Inspiration Award – Dr. Amanda Randles and Dr. Muath Bishawi, Duke University.
This year, for the first time, the AJN Awards Board is also issuing two Certificates of Commendation, for extraordinary efforts and impact on issues around the COVID-19 pandemic. The certificates are:
Science Stewardship Certificate of Commendation – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Science Communication Certificate of Commendation – Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID
Friends, family, and colleagues are cordially invited to attend, as are previous award winners, nominators, and sponsoring institutions.
Registration for the awards ceremony is available here.
For the Media: To arrange for an interview or to send questions to the honorees, contact [email protected]. Details about the awards and images of honorees can be found at: http://prez.ly/FHAb.
About AJN The Alexandra Jane Noble Awards honor efforts to communicate complex topics in innovative, engaging ways to stimulate higher awareness of scientific issues in the general populace – particularly in young adults. Noble, a Stanford graduate and prolific writer, envisioned epiphany awards that embraced her vision of scientific discovery and contribution. The awards have three specific goals:
- Celebrate successful ‘epiphany’ science and its creators
- Stimulate students, especially young women, to enter scientific careers
- Support better expository writing and documentaries about ‘great science’
This year’s awards are:
- Science Awareness Award – Recognizes an individual, team, or organization that best is able to communicate complex science topics in innovative, engaging ways to stimulate higher awareness and participation by a wide populace
- Science Discovery Award – Acknowledges individuals and companies which have created major disruptive scientific contributions
- Science Impact Award – Recognizing scientific contributions that have created major impact on people’s lives
- Science and Society Award – Acknowledges individuals and companies whose scientific and technical contributions are making impacts in different areas
- Science Inspiration Award – Recognizes 'unsung heroes' whose work stimulates and inspires potential leaders and boosts understanding of science and technology among a wider audience.
Since the inception of the awards, there have been 23 individual awardees, plus six institutions and two commendations. Past winners include actor and science communication advocate Alan Alda and philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge.
About Novim Group Founded in January, 2008, at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, at UC Santa Barbara, California, Novim brings together teams of scientists to render complex issues comprehensible to non-scientists. Aiming to tackle global problems using science and the scientific method, the group's scientific teams work on a wide range of projects covering everything from climate engineering and nuclear energy, to public employee pensions.
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