Zare wins NASA medal
Richard N. Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor
of Chemistry, will be one of 24 recipients of NASA's
Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for 1997. The
medals are awarded annually "for unusually
significant scientific contributions toward achievement
of the NASA mission."
According to the citation, Zare was selected for his
"exceptional scientific contributions that resulted
in the discovery of possible ancient life on Mars."
He was a member of the scientific team that announced
last August that they had found strong circumstantial
evidence that alien microbes once inhabited the interior
of a meteorite of Martian origin.
The primary contribution of Zare's research group was
to measure significant amounts of organic material in the
meteorite, the first organic materials found with a
Martian origin. According to the nomination submitted by
Wesley T. Huntress Jr., NASA associate administrator for
space science, "the careful research and concern
with the scientific integrity of [these] results were
critical to ensuring that this discovery passed the peer
review process."
The scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston - David McKay, Everett Gibson Jr. and Kathie L.
Thomas-Keprta - with whom Zare collaborated on this
project also will receive exceptional scientific
achievement medals.
The awards ceremony will take place in Washington,
D.C. on June 17. SR
|
