The White House recognized more than two dozen scientists and innovators Friday with what will likely be the Biden administration’s last National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation.
The awards honored researchers ranging from astrophysicists and oncologists, as well as the pharmaceutical companies that developed the mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. Three climate and environmental scientists were included in the bunch.
Richard Alley, a geoscientist at Pennsylvania State University, received a National Medal of Science for his decades of research on melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea-level rise and other climate impacts.
“Spending long tours in the most remote and extreme environments on Earth, Richard Alley has catapulted climate predictions to great heights and raised new urgency to address the climate crisis, moving the world toward a sustainable future,” said Kei Koizumi, principal deputy director for science, society and policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who announced the awards.
