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Mercury, May/June 1999 Table of Contents

The ASP's highest honor, the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, is awarded this year to Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge (University of California at San Diego) for his fundamental life-long contributions to astronomy. He played a key role in developing our understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis from both theoretical and observational standpoints. Another important milestone was the determination of the structure and mass of galaxies, and of some galaxy clusters and groups, with significant implications for the presence of dark matter. He also pointed out the x-ray/inverse-Compton problems in quasars, with implications for the physical structure of these luminous sources. Dr. Burbidge has also made major contributions in service to astronomy, specifically as Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, as Editor of the Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and as a participant in numerous national and international advisory committees. In each of these endeavors, he has not only been instrumental in ensuring significant progress, but he has done so with notable integrity and candor.
Alexei V. Filippenko

Trumpler Award
Adam G. Riess

The Robert J. Trumpler Award is given to a recent recipient of the Ph.D. degree whose research is considered unusually important to astronomy. The 1999 recipient is Dr. Adam G. Riess (Ph.D., 1996, Harvard University), for his thesis on Type Ia supernovae. Though fairly homogeneous in their peak power, significant variations among them have been seen. Dr. Riess developed a quantitative method to account for these differences, based on detailed analysis of a set of Type Ia supernovae in galaxies of known distance. This work led to the reliable calibration of Type Ia supernovae as cosmological distance indicators, thereby providing accurate measurements of the Hubble constant, of the linearity of Universal expansion, and of the Milky Way's motion relative to the Hubble flow. The utility of Dr. Riess's thesis became very apparent in the past two years, when the methods were applied to a sample of supernovae that led to the possible detection of a non-zero cosmological constant.
Alexei V. Filippenko

Klumpke-Roberts Award
Stephen P. Maran

The 1999 Klumpke-Roberts Award is given to Stephen P. Maran, Assistant Director of Space Sciences for Information and Outreach, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. This award is given for his outstanding work as Press Officer for the American Astronomical Society since 1984. In this capacity he arranges press conferences and press releases at AAS meetings, provides background briefings for reporters, works with the scientists to help them communicate better with the media, and supervises an active press room. He also serves (all year, not just at meetings) as a clearinghouse for and communicator on astronomical news stories for the media. For 20 years he also wrote a popular astronomy column,"Sky Reporter," for Natural History magazine. In 1991 Dr. Maran was honored with NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal. One of his nominators wrote: "The work Steve Maran is doing as the Press Officer for the American Astronomical Society is the single most important factor in enhancing the public understanding of astronomy in the United States..."
Katherine Bracher

Muhlmann Award
Barry M. Lasker

This year's Muhlmann Award is given to Dr. Barry Lasker of the Space Telescope Science Institute. The award is in recognition of his leadership and innovation in producing and distributing the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS). The DSS and its resulting Guide Star Catalog (GSC) for the Hubble Space Telescope have been key tools supporting the operation of HST and in planning for the next generation of NASA and ESA space missions. Dr. Lasker realized back in 1981 that successful operation of HST would require a catalog of 20 million stars covering the entire sky, a catalog some 100 times larger than the previous SAO catalog. He developed a concept involving digitizing Sky Survey plate collections, and his innovations greatly enhanced the speed and precision with which large sky survey plates could be scanned. The DSS and GSC have already made an enormous contribution to the research infrastructure of astronomy, and Dr. Lasker and his team have made an outstanding contribution to the support and practice of observational astronomy.
Steven S. Vogt

Brennan Award
Elizabeth S. Wasiluk

Elizabeth Wasiluk has been selected as this year's recipient of the ASP's Brennan Award for her considerable efforts at astronomy education. Director of the Berkeley County Planetarium and a teacher of physical science and astronomy at Hedgesville High School in Hedgesville, West Virginia, Ms. Wasiluk has made a significant impact on the teaching of high school astronomy on a local, state, and national level. Her teaching experience ranges from life and earth science at the middle school level, to astronomy at the high school and community college levels, to conducting special programs for senior citizens and special education students. In her capacity as planetarium director, she creates and presents programs to all ages. In addition to conference presentations and published articles in the Griffith Observer and Planetarian, Ms. Wasiluk writes a regular column called "Small Talk" for the journal Southern Skies; the feature keeps teachers and planetarium directors up to date on the latest in planetarium programs and astronomy curriculum innovations.
Jeffrey F. Lockwood

Amateur Achievement
Warren Offutt

A retired engineer and relative newcomer to amateur astronomy, Warren Offutt has made very significant contributions to astronomy in a very short time with his astrometric measurements of faint Solar System objects. Mr. Offutt is perhaps alone among amateur astronomers doing this kind of work. His astrometric observations of the new transneptunian objects are extremely important. These objects are, arguably, the most important Solar System discoveries of the late 20th century. With a 0.6 meter Ritchey-Chretien telescope at a high-altitude observing site and ingenious observing techniques, he has been able to see objects as faint as magnitude 22, and has been prepared to make exposures of three hours. In addition to his work in making follow-up observations of several new transneptunian objects, he made the key follow-up observations of the brighter of the two new reported outer satellites of Uranus. Since professional astronomers are not able to get enough observing time on large telescopes to follow these discoveries, Mr. Offutt's high-quality observations of transneptunian objects are invaluable.
Janet A. Mattei