Larry has me at a disadvantage. For a person who deals with structure and molecular architecture, and the 3-Dimensional World, I feel most secure with the diagrams and slides and models. Today I have to deal with words.
The reactions to being selected as the recipient of an award, particularly a prestigious award, may vary considerably with each individual. I will try to summarize and blend my reactions with those of my husband (Jerome Karle) who regrettably could not be here today. Certainly both of us are delighted and feel very honored to have received quite a few awards.
One of our observations is that it is advantageous to live long enough. For example, Ernst Ruska developed and built the first electron microscope during the years 1931-1933. Even during the Depression Days in Germany, he was able to persuade the Siemens Company to cooperate in producing a commercially available electron microscope in 1938. Soon afterwards, despite World War II, RCA in this country started to produce electron microscopes. Despite the widespread scientific use of the instrument and the technique, and the obvious advantage to Science, more than 50 years passed before Ruska was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986, just two years before he died.
In the case of my husband, the elapsed time was only 35 years between his Seminal work on solving the elusive phase problem in X-RAY Crystallography in 1950 and receiving the Nobel Prize in 1985.
In my own case, I was past 65 years of age when I receives most of my major awards. If I had retires at 65, would I have been overlooked?
Another observation is that people who receive awards generally have made several very good contributions to Science or Technology. However, sometimes there is a disparity between the awardee and the subject of the particular award. There is an anecdotal tale ascribed to Felix Bloch (who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952 for his discovery of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). In the story, Bloch is chided for accepting some award for something to which he contributed very little. Bloch's reply was that it was so, however, so many people received awards for work that Bloch was responsible for, that he felt that the stakes were somewhat leveled.
For Jerome and me there have been a number of consequences stemming from having received various awards. The first consequence that I will mention is vindication for ideas and interpretations of experimental results that we presented early in our careers (both separately and jointly). These were concepts and results that conflicted with the accepted knowledge of the day. Our papers were rejected in journals based on the referees' evaluations that the results were not valid or that it was impossible to attain the accuracy that was reported, or that the mathematics was not applicable to the problem at hand, or that it simply would not work. The Seminal Paper on Phase Determination was not published in any journal but was published semi-privately in 1950 as a monograph. The monograph was reviewed most unfavorably by a well-known crystallographer of the day and the review was published in Chemical and Engineering News in the early 1950's. The awards that were conferred eventually for that initial work and the ramifications that stemmed from it were a source of great satisfaction.
As an aside, it seems to be important to have your name spelled correctly, not what you do, as an immediate consequence of that unfavorable review, editors of several scientific journals added Jerome's name to their list of referees for submitted manuscripts.
Another consequence of receiving prestigious awards was the opening of doors to events and places that would not have been attainable otherwise, such as receptions, dinners, ceremonies and sometimes symposia held in embassies and regal places in exotic parts of the world, at the White House, at the Vatican, in the Senate Office Building, etc. Of course, these events included meetings with personages such as the Pope, the Presidents of several countries, The King and Extended Royal Family of Sweden; and in addition, authors, economists, entertainers, University Presidents, etc. All of these were opportunities to expand my experiences with the world.
In addition, there was a great increase in the number of invitations to present lectures to students of all ages and to participate in summer schools for gifted children.
In many universities, particularly in less populated areas in the U.S., neither students nor faculty had ever met Scientists personally who had received distinguished awards. Simply our presence and informal discussions seemed to be a source of inspiration for them.
A third consequence that I want to mention concerns money. Some of our awards were accomplished by neat sums. A large portion has been and will be recycled in educational institutions. In one university we have established, in the chemistry department, a discretionary fund that has been used for the unexpected needs of some students, for the unfounded new faculty member, for temporarily bridging the gap caused by the cancellation of grants and other catastrophes. At quite a number of occasions, at various universities or scientific meetings, I have been approached by a young faculty member of a new scientist who expressed appreciation for the financial aid during some emergency. At City College in New York, we fund two scholarships for college graduates who are entering graduate school or medical school. Often the recipients are students from the Caribbean area who have an excellent undergraduate record and great ambitions for the future, but absolutely no money. At Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn we fund scientific and technical equipment such as telescopes and professional photographic cameras. It is gratifying that with this kind of equipment, combined with the good and dedicated teachers, the school has become a magnet school. The camera, by itself, has given rise to numerous national awards in photography and more than 1.4 million dollars in scholarships to art schools or for the study of journalism. It has been a pleasure to be able to use some of our award money to provide education and aid to budding science students (and some young photographers) who would be deprived of opportunities otherwise.
Finally, there is the category of name recognition. School children, teachers and the general public appear to be awed by the word "Nobel". Other equally prestigious awards do not evoke the same response. But whatever the name of the award, children and young people are sufficiently impressed that they may look forward to a career in science or technology.
The Naval Research Laboratory and the department of the NAVY have demonstrated their appreciation in various ways and seem to be delighted that we are continuing our research despite somewhat advanced years. There is a permanent display concerning our awards in the lobby of the administration building at NRL and a display in the hall in the Pentagon which is included in the visitor's guided tour.
Our daughter who has almost the same name as her father gets special recognition when she presents her work at National American Chemical Society meetings or Tropical Medicine meetings.
An important area of name recognition is in the work done by the Human Rights Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. This committee tries to alleviate the conditions of scientists and physicians who are imprisoned for political reasons. The method of operation is to write very polite letters to heads-of-state or influential government officials requesting release from prison or at least for more humane treatment. It surprises me how effective this method has been. Jerome personally has received a number of letters of appreciation from mathematicians and physicians (in Liberia and various South American countries) who have been released from prison, although usually the victims do not know the identity of the individual letter writers.
My last words are that being recipients of awards
has changes our lives in unexpected ways.
However, whether I won or didn't win an award, my personal dedication to science
and the discovery of the unknown would continue.