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New: Famous Scientists on US Postage Stamps
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 20:16:33 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com> Date: May 28, 2005 7:28:58 PM EDT To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: New: Famous Scientists on US Postage Stamps American Scientists Press Releasehttp://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl// display_products/productDetail.jsp?OID=4849393&info=more#Press_Release
CELEBRATING MORE THAN A CENTURY OF SCIENCE ON U.S. POSTAGE STAMPS WASHINGTON — Four American Scientists-Thermodynamicist Josiah Willard Gibbs, geneticist Barbara McClintock, mathematician John von Neumann and physicist Richard P. Feynman-were honored with postage stamps dedicated in a special ceremony today at Henry R. Luce Hall, Yale University, New Haven, CT. As host to the event, New Haven holds the unique distinction of being the only city in the nation where the stamps will be available May 4. The stamps will be available at Post Offices and Philatelic Centers nationwide May 5. "These are some of the greatest scientists of our time, their pioneering discoveries still influence our lives today," said John F. Walsh, a member of the U.S. Postal Service's Board of Governors, who dedicated the stamp. Joining Walsh were Paul A Fleury, Dean of Engineering, Yale University; Michelle Feynman, Feynman's daughter; Marina Whitman, Von Neumann's daughter; Marjorie M. Bhavnani, McClintock's niece; John Willard Gibbs III, Gibbs' cousin; John Marburger, Director, Office of Science Technology; and Victor Stabin, stamp artist. Honored guests included Richard Levin, President, Yale University and John DeStefano, Mayor, New Haven, CT. "This is truly an honor for, not only science enthusiasts and scientists, but for our community as well," said DeStefano. "As a life-long resident of New Haven, I am thrilled these beautiful scientist stamps are being issued here." Artist Victor Stabin started with collages featuring portraits of the scientists and drawings associated with their major contributions to create the stamps. Information about the specific elements in each collage is printed on the back of each stamp. Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) Historians and scientists alike have called Josiah Willard Gibbs one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. Some have declared his discoveries to be as fundamental in nature as those of Galileo and Newton. Over the course of his career, Gibbs made important contributions in vector analysis, electromagnetic theory and statistical mechanics, but he is best known for developing the modern method of thermodynamic analysis. Gibbs attended Yale, and earned the first doctorate in engineering to be conferred in the United States. He then accepted a position at Yale as professor of mathematical physics. This is where he taught for the rest of his life-teaching and applying his intellect to the theoretical problems of the day. Throughout his career, Gibbs published many books, including "On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances," which introduced the Phase Rule, said to be the most important single linear equation in the history of science. Gibbs wrote five papers on the electromagnetic theory of light, prepared classroom notes that eventually became the first English language work on modern vector analysis, and in 1902 published his classic "Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics." For his extraordinary achievements, Gibbs received some of the most prestigious awards of his time, including the Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1880 and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1901. Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) In 1983, the renowned geneticist Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in the category of "Physiology or Medicine" for discovering genetic transposition. McClintock's research on Indian corn plants led to her discovery that genetic material can change positions on a chromosome or move from one chromosome to another. Her discovery was confirmed immediately in corn and in the 1960s and 1970s in bacteria and other organisms. It was at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York that she discovered transposition in the course of experiments on mutations caused by broken chromosomes. She called her mobile genetic elements "controlling elements," to indicate they controlled the action of other genes during development. McClintock was among the first biologists to think concretely about the way genetic material controls the development of the organism. John von Neumann (1903-1957) One of the preeminent mathematicians of the 20th century, John von Neumann made numerous scientific contributions in both pure and applied mathematics. Among them was a machine that became a model for virtually all modern computers. He joined Albert Einstein and other scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study, founded in 1930 at Princeton, NJ. In 1937, von Neumann obtained U.S. citizenship, and by 1943 was serving as a consultant on the U.S. project to build an atomic bomb at Los Alamos, NM. "A First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)," written by von Neumann in June 1945, described a design based on the stored-program concept, meaning that operating instructions could be entered into a computer via punched cards and then stored internally. The new machine, completed in 1952, became a prototype for almost every computer built since then. For his part in its development, von Neumann received the Enrico Fermi Award in 1956, the most prestigious science and technology award of the United States of America. Von Neumann made two other significant contributions that by themselves would have brought fame. He provided the mathematical foundations for quantum mechanics and, with Oskar Morgenstern, co-authored "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior" (1944). This theory, which has applications in business and military strategies, analyzes situations involving conflicting interests in terms of the opposing players' gains and losses. Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) Richard P. Feynman was a highly original theoretical physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichero Tomonaga for fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, which the three carried out independently in the 1940s. His new formulation of quantum theory included innovative diagrams-now called Feynman diagrams-devised to help visualize the dynamics of atomic particles. Over several decades, Feynman also made significant contributions to many other areas of physics, including the computation theory, the fundamental theory for the weak nuclear force, which he developed with colleague Murray Gell-Mann. He even delved into biology. Today, Feynman is also remembered for his major role in the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident in 1986. In addition to the Nobel Prize, this respected physicist and educator received the Albert Einstein Award in 1954, the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in 1962, the Oersted Medal for teaching in 1972, the National Medal of Science in 1979 and many other honors-but he often said the best reward was "the pleasure of finding things out." --- Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC. 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