NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences
The NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences is an award presented by the National Academy of Sciences since 2010 .
Until 2007 it was only awarded every five years as the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal for special research achievements in the paleontology of the Cambrian and Precambrian - named after Charles Doolittle Walcott . Since 2010, the prize has been awarded under his new name every three years, alternating with the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal or the Stanley Miller Medal . The latter is awarded for special research achievements in one of the following areas: early evolution of the earth as a planet, including chemical evolution , early biological evolution , accretion , differentiation and tectonics of the planets, and the early evolution of the oceans and atmosphere.
The NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences is endowed with 10,000 US dollars (as of 2013).
Award winners
- 1934 David White
- 1939 Anton H. Westergård for research on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Cambrian in Sweden
- 1947 Alexander G. Wologdin for studies on Cambrian and Precambrian algae and the Archaeocyatha
- 1953 Franco Rasetti for his contributions to Cambrian paleontology
- 1957 Pierre Hupé for his work Contribution a l'etude du Cambrien inferieur et du Precambrien III de l'Antiatlas marocain .
- 1962 Armin Alexander Öpik for contributions to Cambrian geology and paleontology
- 1967 Allison R. Palmer for studies of Cambrian and Precambrian life forms
- 1972 Elso S. Barghoorn for his contributions to Precambrian paleobiology
- 1977 Preston Cloud for his research on Precambrian paleontology and the early history of life
- 1982 Martin F. Glaessner for his biological and palaeoecological analysis of the first metazoa
- 1987 Andrew Knoll and Simon Conway Morris for their studies on the evolution of plants especially during the transition to the Phanerozoic
- 1992 Stefan Bengtson for his leading role in the elucidation of the enigmatic fauna in the Cambrian Explosion
- 1997 Michail A. Fedonkin for his documentation of both fossils and traces that prove the earliest evolution of animals
- 2002 Hans J. Hofmann for his discovery of fossils that shed light on the early evolution of life such as stromatolites of the Archean , cyanobacteria or the beginning of multicellular organisms
- 2007 John P. Grotzinger for investigation of fossil stromatolites in limestone and detailed field studies of the time course of early evolution
- 2010 Gerald F. Joyce (Stanley Miller Medal) for his pioneering experiments on the self-sustained replication and evolution of RNA enzymes (ribozymes), which illuminate key conceptual steps in the origin of life.
- 2013 J. William Schopf (Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal) for his pioneering studies of Precambrian microfossils and for his generous and inspirational leadership of the Precambrian Paleobiology Research Groups.
- 2016 James F. Kasting (Stanley Miller Medal) for his outstanding modeling studies of planetary atmospheres and habitability that constrain the environmental context for the origin of life.
- 2019 Norman R. Pace (Stanley Miller Medal) for his seminal contributions to the discovery of catalytic RNAs and his pioneering work on methods for delineating the diversity of life on Earth.