This prize should not be confused with the Watson Davis Award from the
Association for Information Science and Technology.[1]
The Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize of the
History of Science Society is awarded yearly for a book published, during the past three years, on the history of science for a wide public. The book should "introduce an entire field, a chronological period, a national tradition, or the work of a noteworthy individual." The book can be written by multiple authors or editors and is required to be written in English and suitable for an audience including undergraduates and readers without specialized, technical knowledge. The author (or collective author) receives 1,000 U.S. dollars and a certificate. The prize, established in 1985, is named in honor of
Watson Davis and
Helen Miles Davis who were science popularizers in the USA.[2]
Prize winners of the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize
1987
Thomas L. Hankins, Science in the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
1988
John Heilbron, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck as Spokesman for German Science (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).
1989
Joan Mark, A Stranger in Her Native Land: Alice Fletcher and the American Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988). biography of
Alice Fletcher.
1990
Robert W. Smith, The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA Science, Technology, and Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
1991
Nancy G. Siraisi, Medieval and Early Modern Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
1992
John Hedley Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
1997
Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Simon & Schuster, 1995).
1998
Ruth Lewin Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
1999
Daniel J. Kevles, The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science and Character (W.W. Norton & Company, 1998).
2000
Gregg Mitman, Reel Nature: America’s Romance with Wildlife on Film (Harvard University Press, 1999).
2001
Nancy Tomes, The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life (Harvard University Press, 2000).
2002
Peter Dear, Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (Princeton University Press, 2001).
2003
Ken Alder, The Measure of All Things: The Seven Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World (The Free Press, 2002, on
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre's meridian expedition in France in the 1790s)
2004
Jeff Hughes, The Manhattan Project: Big Science and the Atomic Bomb (Columbia University Press/Icon Books, 2003)
2005
Alan M. Kraut, Goldberger’s War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader (Hill and Wang, 2004). biography of
Joseph Goldberger.
2006
Robin Marantz Henig, Pandora’s Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution (Houghton Mifflin Press, 2004).
2007
Matt Ridley, Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code (Atlas Books, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006).
2008
Helen Rozwadowski, Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea (Belknap Press, 2005).
2009
Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking (Viking Adult, 2008).
2010
Marcia Bartusiak, The Day We Found the Universe (Pantheon Books, 2009).
2012
Mark Barrow, Nature’s Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology (University of Chicago Press, 2009).
2013
David Kaiser, How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).
2014
W. Patrick McCray, The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future (Princeton University Press, 2012).
This prize should not be confused with the Watson Davis Award from the
Association for Information Science and Technology.[1]
The Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize of the
History of Science Society is awarded yearly for a book published, during the past three years, on the history of science for a wide public. The book should "introduce an entire field, a chronological period, a national tradition, or the work of a noteworthy individual." The book can be written by multiple authors or editors and is required to be written in English and suitable for an audience including undergraduates and readers without specialized, technical knowledge. The author (or collective author) receives 1,000 U.S. dollars and a certificate. The prize, established in 1985, is named in honor of
Watson Davis and
Helen Miles Davis who were science popularizers in the USA.[2]
Prize winners of the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize
1987
Thomas L. Hankins, Science in the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
1988
John Heilbron, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck as Spokesman for German Science (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).
1989
Joan Mark, A Stranger in Her Native Land: Alice Fletcher and the American Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988). biography of
Alice Fletcher.
1990
Robert W. Smith, The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA Science, Technology, and Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
1991
Nancy G. Siraisi, Medieval and Early Modern Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
1992
John Hedley Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
1997
Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Simon & Schuster, 1995).
1998
Ruth Lewin Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
1999
Daniel J. Kevles, The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science and Character (W.W. Norton & Company, 1998).
2000
Gregg Mitman, Reel Nature: America’s Romance with Wildlife on Film (Harvard University Press, 1999).
2001
Nancy Tomes, The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life (Harvard University Press, 2000).
2002
Peter Dear, Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (Princeton University Press, 2001).
2003
Ken Alder, The Measure of All Things: The Seven Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World (The Free Press, 2002, on
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre's meridian expedition in France in the 1790s)
2004
Jeff Hughes, The Manhattan Project: Big Science and the Atomic Bomb (Columbia University Press/Icon Books, 2003)
2005
Alan M. Kraut, Goldberger’s War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader (Hill and Wang, 2004). biography of
Joseph Goldberger.
2006
Robin Marantz Henig, Pandora’s Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution (Houghton Mifflin Press, 2004).
2007
Matt Ridley, Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code (Atlas Books, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006).
2008
Helen Rozwadowski, Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea (Belknap Press, 2005).
2009
Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking (Viking Adult, 2008).
2010
Marcia Bartusiak, The Day We Found the Universe (Pantheon Books, 2009).
2012
Mark Barrow, Nature’s Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology (University of Chicago Press, 2009).
2013
David Kaiser, How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).
2014
W. Patrick McCray, The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future (Princeton University Press, 2012).