why does a Science medal go to a Council on Foreign Relations dude?

[cosmicdot]

just seemed odd - working for a right-wing special interest tax-exempt organization

probably nothing -- in case anyone is interested on who got rewarded

Richard L. Garwin "has spent about half his time working for the U.S. Government in technology and security, in fields ranging from the technology of nuclear weapons to arms control, satellite reconnaissance and the global-positioning system (GPS). In 1996 he received from the U.S. foreign intelligence community the R.V. Jones Award for Scientific Intelligence. That same year he also received the Enrico Fermi Award from the Department of Energy and the President for his work with nuclear weapons and their control. From 1994 until 2001 he chaired the State Department's Arms Control and Nonproliferation Advisory Board."


Bush Awards Science and Technology Medals
Thu Nov 6, 9:45 PM ET Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Thursday awarded the highest honors he can bestow in science and technology to 16 individuals and the DuPont Co., for achievements in fields ranging from physics to genetics to the development of semiconductors.

~snip~

The president often raised his eyebrows in amazement as each honoree's achievements — in a dizzying array of areas such as string theory and quantum physics — were recited.


The National Medal of Science winners were: James E. Darnell Jr., Rockefeller University, New York, N.Y.; Evelyn M. Witkin, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; John I. Brauman, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.; Leo L. Beranek, BBN Technologies, Cambridge, Mass.; James G. Glimm, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.; Richard L. Garwin, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, N.Y.; W. Jason Morgan, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.; and Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J.


The National Medal of Technology winners were: Calvin H. Carter Jr., Cree Inc., Durham, N.C.; Haren S. Gandhi, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich.; Carver A. Mead, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.; John J. Mooney and Carl D. Keith of the Engelhard Corporation, Iselin, N.J.; Nicholas Holonyak Jr., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, Ill.; M. George Craford, LumiLeds Lighting, San Jose, Calif.; Russell D. Dupuis, Georgia Institute of Technology at Atlanta, Ga.; and DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/bush_science_medals

[LibInternationalist]

1. your perception of CFR is SOOOOO wrong

I know several members who I would definitely not describe as right-wing

[pmbryant]

2. Found this 2002 PBS Frontline interview with Garwin

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/missile/interviews/garwin.html

Richard Garwin, a physicist who helped build America's hydrogen bomb, is a senior fellow and the director of science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written extensively about missile defense. Here, Garwin discusses some of the key moments in missile defense history, the inability to defend against biological warfare "bomblets" launched from long-range missiles, and other limitations of current technologies. Garwin also talks about his role in the controversial Rumsfeld commission report of 1998. This interview was conducted by FRONTLINE producer Sherry Jones in the spring of 2002.

It's rather long, but I skimmed over it, and the fellow sounds very reasonable. He is certainly not a gung-ho proponent of missile defense. Quite the contrary.

As for his science achievements, I am not familiar with them.

EDIT: Here's a web page that gives a bio of the guy ("The Garwin Archive")

http://www.fas.org/rlg/

--Peter

[Dudley_DUright]

4. LOL

You and I are on the same wavelength Peter. See below (I got sidetracked reading some of his articles from the archive we both posted so I did not see your post before I posted mine).

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Garwin is one of the good guys

Although earlier in his career he worked on nuclear weapons development, the vast majority of his public policy time has been spent on arms control issues. He is a strong critic of the star wars (national missile defense) program and he is a board member of the union of concerned scientists (hardly a right wing group since I belong to it myself). He is a brilliant physicist with years of national service. I would say he deserves this recognition.

For an archive of his voluminous articles, check out the Federation of American Scientists (again hardly a right wing group) web site archive at:

http://www.fas.org/rlg/