The NAS Award for Initiatives in Research is awarded annually by the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

 "to recognize innovative young scientists and to encourage research likely to lead toward new capabilities for human benefit. The award is to be given to a citizen of the United States, preferably no older than 35 years of age. The field of presentation rotates among the physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics." The award was established in 1981 in honor of William O. Baker

William O. Baker

William Oliver Baker was a former President of Bell Labs who had advised five Presidents on scientific matters. He received his degree from Washington College and went on to get a doctorate from Princeton University, studying under Charles Phelps Smyth...

 by AT&T Bell Laboratories

Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

 and is supported by Lucent Technologies

Lucent Technologies

Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...

.

Recipients

• 2011: Martin T. Zanni (optical sciences)
• 2010: Mark Tygert (numerical methods)
• 2009: Ali Javey (nanoscience)
• 2008: Aniket Gaur (non conventional energy)
• 2007: Deepti Sharma (optical science)
• 2006: David Goldhaber-Gordon (condensed matter/materials science)
• 2005: Ronald Fedkiw
  Ronald Fedkiw
  Ronald Paul "Ron" Fedkiw is an associate professor in the Stanford University department of computer science and a leading researcher in the field of computer graphics, focusing on topics relating to physically based simulation of natural phenomena and level sets. His techniques have been...
  
   (computational science/applied mathematics )
• 2004: Yoel Fink (condensed matter/materials science)
• 2003: David R. Karger
  David Karger
  David Karger is a Professor of Computer Science and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He received an AB from Harvard University and a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. Dr...
  
   (algorithms and computation)
• 2002: Deborah S. Jin
  Deborah S. Jin
  Deborah S. Jin is a physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology ; Professor Adjoint, Department of Physics at the University of Colorado; a fellow of the JILA, a NIST joint laboratory with the University of Colorado. In 2003, Dr. Jin's team at JILA made the first fermionic...
  
   (quantum electronics)
• 2001: Jon M. Kleinberg
  Jon Kleinberg
  -External links:**** Stephen Ibaraki*Yury Lifshits,...
  
   (computational science/applied mathematics)
• 2000: Kenneth A. Farley
  Kenneth Farley
  Kenneth A. Farley is a noble gas isotope geochemist, W. M. Keck Foundation professor of geochemistry and chairman of theDivision of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology...
  
   (geochemistry/geophysics)
• 1999: Jennifer A. Doudna (biomedical science)
• 1998: Arthur Lupia
  Arthur Lupia
  Arthur Lupia is an American political scientist. He is the Hal R. Varian Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.Lupia received a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Rochester and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in social science from the California Institute of...
  
   (social and political sciences)
• 1997: Matthew P. A. Fisher (condensed matter physics)
• 1996: Christopher Stubbs
  Christopher Stubbs
  Christopher Stubbs is an experimental physicist currently on the faculty at Harvard University in both the Department of Physics and the Department of Astronomy. He is a former Chair of Harvard's Department of Physics.-Biography:...
  
   (astrophysics)
• 1995: Thomas D. Albright (systems neuroscience)
• 1994: Joanne Chory (plant molecular biology)
• 1993: R. Eric Betzig (physics)
• 1992: Alice P. Gast
  Alice Gast
  Alice Petry Gast is the 13th President of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She is Lehigh's first female president....
  
   (chemical engineering)
• 1992: Sangtae Kim (chemical engineering )
• 1991: Noam D. Elkies
  Noam Elkies
  Noam David Elkies is an American mathematician and chess master.At age 14, Elkies received a gold medal with a perfect score at the International Mathematical Olympiad, the youngest ever to do so...
  
   (mathematics)
• 1990: James G. Fujimoto (quantum electronics)
• 1990: Wayne H. Knox (quantum electronics)
• 1989: John K. Ousterhout
  John Ousterhout
  John Kenneth Ousterhout is the chairman of Electric Cloud, Inc. and a professor of computer science at Stanford University. He founded Electric Cloud with John Graham-Cumming. Ousterhout previously was a professor of computer science at University of California, Berkeley where he created the Tcl...
  
   (engineering)
• 1988: Marc L. Mansfield (applied polymer chemistry and physics)
• 1987: Jeremy Nathans
  Jeremy Nathans
  Jeremy Nathans is a professor molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University, in addition to a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute....
  
   (genetics)
• 1986: David R. Nelson
  David Robert Nelson
  David R. Nelson is an American physicist, and Arthur K. Solomon Professor of Biophysics, at Harvard University....
  
   (materials science)
• 1985: Steven E. Lindow (applied biology)
• 1984: Robert E. Tarjan (computer science and engineering)
• 1983: Stephen M. Kosslyn
  Stephen Kosslyn
  Stephen Michael Kosslyn is an American psychologist who specializes in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Until 31 December 2010 he was John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James and Dean of Social Science at Harvard University, having previously...
  
   (behavioral and social sciences)
• 1982: Kerry E. Sieh
  Kerry Sieh
  Kerry E. Sieh is an American geologist and seismologist.Sieh's principal research interest is earthquake geology, which uses geological layers and landforms to understand the geometries of active faults, the earthquakes they generate, and the crustal structure their movements produce...
  
   (geochemistry/geophysics)
• 1981: Gary D. Patterson (polymer science)

External links

• NAS Award for Initiatives in Research