Three Academy Members Win Franklin Medals
The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia will award the 2011 Benjamin Franklin Medals in April.
Published January 22, 2011
Three of seven scientists to be awarded the 2011 Benjamin Franklin Medals by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia are members of the New York Academy of Sciences.
The institute announced that the 2011 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry will be presented to K. C. Nicolaou, chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, for his achievements in synthetic organic chemistry, particularly for the development of methods for preparing complex substances found in nature, which have potential applications in the field of medicine.
The Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering will be presented to Ingrid Daubechies, professor of mathematics at Princeton University, for fundamental discoveries in the field of compact representations of data, leading to efficient image compression as used in digital photography.
And Dean Kamen, founder of DEKA Research and Development Corporation, will be awarded the Medal in Mechanical Engineering for his resourcefulness and imagination in creating mechanical devices that broadly benefit society and enable people with disabilities to improve their quality of life and health.
All laureates will be honored in Philadelphia April 25-28, 2011, with a series of events to celebrate their accomplishments with area students and the community.