First annual Golden Goose Awards honor eight scientists

Recipients honored for their work on glowing jellyfish, radiation waves, and tropical coral

Eight scientists, including four Nobel Prize winners, will be honored today with the first annual Golden Goose Awards, celebrating researchers whose seemingly odd or obscure federally funded research turned out to have a significant impact on society. The awardees will be honored at a ceremony on Capitol Hill, where they will receive their awards from a bipartisan group of Members of Congress. The scientists are:

- Charles Townes, a physicist whose work in the 1950s led to the invention of laser technology, which at the time had no known application, but without which much of modern technology would be impossible. His work earned him a Nobel Prize in 1964.

- Eugene White, Rodney White, Della Roy, and the late Jon Weber, whose study of tropical coral in the 1960s led serendipitously to the development of an ideal bone graft material that is used commonly in surgery today. (Dr. Roy cannot be present for the ceremony.)

- Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien, and Osamu Shimomura, whose research, following Dr. Shimomura's work on how certain jellyfish glow in the dark, led to numerous medical research advances and to methods used widely by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. They won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2008. (Dr. Shimomura cannot be present for the ceremony.)

The purpose of the Golden Goose Award is to demonstrate the human and economic benefits of federally funded research by highlighting examples of seemingly obscure or unusual studies that have led to major breakthroughs and have had a significant impact on society. Such breakthroughs may include development of life-saving medicines and treatments; game-changing social and behavioral insights; and major technological advances related to national security, energy, the environment, communications, and public health.

The Golden Goose Award was originally the idea of Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN). It was created and jointly launched by a coalition of organizations, listed below, which believe that federally funded basic scientific research is the cornerstone of American innovation and essential to our economic growth, health, global competitiveness, and national security. The award recipients were selected by a panel of respected scientists and university research leaders, also listed below.

Reflecting on the award, Representative Cooper said, "We should honor, not mock, scientists. Like the fabled golden goose, today's awardees gave unexpected gifts to mankind. Budget cutbacks must be made, but science should be spared."

Rep. Cooper and other Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who support the Golden Goose Award are expected to speak and hand out the awards at today's ceremony.

Speaking on behalf of the sponsoring organizations, Dr. Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, added, "The unexpected benefits of basic research have been huge, a point well-demonstrated by the work of the first Golden Goose awardees."