On Wed, 06 Jan 2016 10:29:02 -0800, Joan Warmbold wrote:
It would be interesting to compare the number of medals for scientific
achievements have been bestowed during various administrations.
It would not seem too cynical to suspect that respect that a particular
administration has for science might influence this, would it?
Maybe, but the situation may not be as simple as whether an
administration is friendly to science or not. Let's consider the
situation for NMS recipient in the "Behavioral & Social Sciences".
Consider the following:
(1) According to the website for National Medal of Science, the
"Behavioral & Social Sciences" (BSS) was not officially recognized
until 1980 (Congress made it so; see:
https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/medal.jsp ).
(2) However, in spite of BSS not being a valid category until 1980,
the list of NMS laureates in the list linked to below has as its
first entry in this category as Neal Miller in 1964. Skinner comes
in 1968. However, Neal Miller is officially in BSS while Skinner
is in "Biological Sciences" (note the footnote in the Wiki list).
IMHO, I think the NSF got it backwards for these two
(3) So, if we group the people in BSS who received NMS during
different administrations, we get a list like the following:
NOTE: There are a total of 23 NMS laureates on the Wiki list
but it could be argued that others could be included such as
Allen Newell [1992; Bush] who got it for Math/Stat/CompSci
and Eric Kandel [1988; Reagan] who got it for Bio -- similar
arguments can be made for others)
NMS given by:
Lyndon Johnson (D): 2 (Neal Miller, B.F. Skinner)
Ronald Reagan (R): 3 (Herb Simon, Anne Anastasi, George Stigler,
Milton Friedman; Reagan had a thing for economists)
George W.H. Bush(R): 4 (Leonid Hurwicz, Patrick Suppes, George Miller,
Eleanor Gibson)
Bill Clinton (D): 7 (Robert K Merton, Roger Shepard, Paul Samuelson,
Bill Estes, William Julius Wilson, Robert Solow, Gary Becker;
NOTE:Clinton had someone else present the NMS for a few of these
folks, such as Veep Al Gore)
George W. Bush(R): 3 (Duncan Luce, Kenneth Arrow, Gordon Bower)
Barack Obama(D): 5 (Mike Posner, Mortimer Mishkin, Anne Treisman,
Robert Axelrod, Albert Bandura)
Dems = 2 + 7 + 5 = 14
Reps = 3 + 4 + 3 = 10
If we eliminate the pre-1980 NMS recipients and count Allen Newell
and Eric Kandel as part of the flock it becomes Dems 12 = Reps 12.
Things that make one go "Hmmmm...."
(4) For additional fun and games, one can download the list of all
recipients as an Excel file that contains names, affiliation, discipline
or
area medal was awarded, award year, area of Nobel Prize won (remember,
there is no Nobel prize for psychology), and, curiously, if the person
is deceased (not sure what the "final" date for this list is); see:
http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/results.jsp?first_name=&award_year=&keyword=&d-49653-s=2&last_name=&state=all&action=sort_year&nobel_disc=all&affiliation=all&d-49653-o=2&discipline=all&d-49653-p=1
Altogether there are 498 recipients. One can always import the Excel
file into SPSS and then do various tests to see if there are significant
difference among all disciplines across different administration (you
folks know who you are).
Gratuitous Sidenotes:
(A) NYU has 7 NMS recipients (in Bio and Math), last one in 2010.
(B) Eric Kandel and I used to have the same dentist (up at the Columbia
Medical Center; the dentist taught in the dental school). He also got
his
MD at the NYU Medical School. Curiously, Albert Sabin, developer of
the oral vaccine for polio, got the NMS but Jonas Salk who developed
the first vaccine for polio did not (both worked at the NYU; see:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NYU_School_of_Medicine_people#Notable_people )
.
Ignore guys like Agatston who created the "South Beach Diet".
-Mike Palij
New York University
m...@nyu.edu
Rick Froman wrote:
Behavioral Science is one of the categories. The list is here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Medal_of_Science_laureates
On Jan 5, 2016, at 8:23 PM, Gerald Peterson
I learned that Bandura is getting the national medal of science....I
Wonder how many psychologists have received this honor?
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