President Bush presents Ohio State researcher with National Medal of Science

Ohio State University researcher Lonnie Thompson will receive the President's National Medal of Science in a White House ceremony at 1:40 p.m. on Friday (7/27). The ceremony will be available to media live via satellite. It also will be available as a live webcast at www.whitehouse.gov.

Thompson is the first Ohio State researcher to win the award, and only the second from Ohio since the program began in 1959.

Thompson, a distinguished university professor of earth sciences at Ohio State, has led more than 50 expeditions to ice caps and glaciers on five continents, retrieving ice cores that contain a diary of past climate conditions around the globe, some dating back farther than 750,000 years.

From this work, he, geography professor Ellen Mosley Thompson – his research partner and wife -- and his research team have provided irrefutable evidence that the last half-century was the warmest period in recorded history. That work signals a rapidly growing warming trend that apparently exceeds any normal variation seen in past centuries.

The prestigious award, considered perhaps the highest honor the United States bestows on an American scientist, caps nearly three decades of research in some of the world's most remote regions. Thompson is one of eight 2005 laureates. In addition, eight 2006 award recipients will be recognized.

WHO: President George W. Bush will present the National Medal of Technology to seven individuals, three companies, and one four-person team; and the National Medal of Science to 16 researchers. The complete list is below.

WHERE: The White House, East Room

WHEN: Friday, July 27, 1:40 p.m.

The 2005 National Medal of Science Laureates:
Jan D. Achenbach – Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Ralph A. Alpher – The Dudley Observatory, Schenectady, New York
Gordon H. Bower– Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Bradley Efron –Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Anthony S. Fauci – National Institute of Health, Washington, DC
Tobin J. Marks – Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Lonnie G. Thompson – Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Torsten N. Wiesel – The Rockefeller University, New York, NY

The 2005 National Medal of Technology Laureates:
Alfred Y. Cho – Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ
Dean L. Sicking – University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Team – Madison, NJ
· Ronald Eby – retired, Syracuse, NY
· Velupillai Puvanesarajah – Sanford, NC
· Dace Viceps Madore, retired – Pittsford, NY
· Maya Koster – Pearl River, NY
Genzyme Corporation – Cambridge, MA
Semiconductor Research Corporation – Durham, NC
Xerox Corporation – Stamford, CT

The 2006 National Medal of Science Laureates:
Hyman Bass – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Marvin H. Caruthers – University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Rita R. Colwell – University of Maryland (College Park, MD), of Bethesda, MD
Peter B. Dervan – California Institute of Technology, San Marino, CA
Nina V. Fedoroff – Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
Daniel Kleppner – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), of
Belmont, MA
Robert S. Langer – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), of Newton, MA
Lubert Stryer – Stanford University, Stanford, CA

The 2006 National Medal of Technology Laureates:
Leslie A. Geddes – Purdue University, Lafayette, IN
Paul G. Kaminski – Technovation, Inc., Fairfax Station, VA
Herwig W. Kogelnik – Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs (Murray Hill, NJ), of Fair Haven, NJ
Charles M. Vest – formerly of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), of Arlington, VA
James E. West – The Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), of Plainfield, NJ

Satellite coordinates:
1:15 p.m. testing time, ceremony 1:40-2:45 p.m., off air 3 p.m.

Ku-BAND (ANALOG):
Galaxy 17 (Ku), Transponder 12
Orbital Slot: 74 West
Bandwidth: 36 MHz
UPLINK FREQUENCY: 14240 (H)
DOWNLINK FREQUENCY: 11940 (V)

C-BAND (ANALOG):
AMC-3 (C), Transponder 14
Orbital Slot: 87 West
Bandwidth: 36 MHz
UPLINK FREQUENCY: 6205 (H)
DOWNLINK FREQUENCY: 3980 (V)