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Presidential Recognition When Elizabeth Lada won a prestigious, $390,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation last May, it didn't seem like her academic life could get much better. But just months later, it did.
PECASE, considered "the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers," was approved by President Clinton in 1996. "These talented young men and women show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge," Clinton said of PECASE recipients. "Their passion for discovery will spark our can-do spirit of technological innovation and drive this nation forward and build a better America for the twenty-first century." In all, 60 scholars from nine federal agencies (20 from the NSF alone) were given 1998 Presidential awards. In February of this year, Lada, her husband Richard Elston (Astronomy) and her parents were invited to Washington, DC for a day of special events organized for PECASE awardees. In the morning, the 20 NSF recipients and their guests met for breakfast at NSF headquarters in Arlington, where Foundation Director Rita Colwell spoke about her experiences as a scientist and about the future of the National Science Foundation. Colwell describes PECASE awards as the "Golden Globe Awards for the Albert Einsteins and Marie Curies of tomorrow."
All 60 PECASE winners met together in the old Executive Building of the White House in the afternoon for a special tour and talk by Arthur Bienenstock, the US Associate Director for Science. "Dr. Bienenstock spoke about what direction he felt the sciences were going (and should go) in the US and what kinds of things were important for young people to do to get us there," Lada explains. "He was especially concerned about the future of science education and of getting young people interested in studying the sciences." Participants were then able to engage in 20 minutes of open discussion. "We could ask any kinds of questions we wanted," says Lada. "It was a nice, informal part of the ceremony, and since it was held in a very 'presidential' room--all blue and gold with an American flag--you really felt like you were in the White House, too, which added to the whole experience."
A formal reception followed in the White House "Indian Treaty Room." The reception provided participants time to finally meet and talk with each other, something Lada and the others appreciated. Donna Shalala was there to congratulate the scientists officially on behalf of the President's Cabinet. Despite all this time in the limelight, Lada says the impact of winning is hard to grasp completely. "It still hasn't hit me yet. I do know that Mark Gluck was right, though. Being able to take five years to explore things I love without having the pressure of thinking, 'Oh my goodness next year I have to file this report and I need to get this grant finished...' will be amazing. But I still don't think it's really sunk in." That's easy to understand. With her first baby due in June, and numerous research and education projects in full swing, the honored UF astronomer has had an incredibly busy and productive year. |
In October, Lada was notified that because of her "ground-breaking exploration and documentation of star forming histories of stellar clusters, development of undergraduate and graduate courses, and outreach to high school girls," the National Science Foundation had chosen her from among hundreds of CAREER recipients to be awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This new award subsumes her CAREER prize, giving Lada a total of $500,000 in research support from the White House over a five-year period.
After awardees were introduced in round-table fashion and given two minutes to talk about what they will be doing with their awards, the NSF portion of the day ended with a talk from Mark Gluck (Molecular Neuroscience, Rutgers University), one of the first (1996) NSF PECASE winners. "He spoke with us about what the award has meant to him and how it has changed his career," says Lada, "and I could relate to some of the things he was saying already. He stressed how incredible it is to be able to experiment a little more. With PECASE, you don't have to prove yourself or worry about where your next round of funding is coming from. It will be nice to be able to try some riskier things."
The formal segment of the ceremony was conducted by Neil Lane, Science Advisor to the President and head of the Office of Science and Technology at the White House. "He gave a brief speech and then he and the heads of all the agencies called our names--kind of like a graduation--and when we came up on stage, they read a citation and gave us our awards."