Award Ceremony
Spring General Meeting, April 26, 2008
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Magellanic Premium
Margaret J. Geller
The American Philosophical Society’s 2008 Magellanic Premium medal is awarded to Dr. Margaret J. Geller, Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in recognition of her pioneering observations of the universe.
Dr. Geller is a brilliant astrophysicist who studies the distribution of galaxies and matter in the universe and the processes that produce their clusterings. Almost thirty years ago she interested her colleague, Dr. John Huchra, in joining her to observe redshifts, determine distances, and produce a three dimensional map of over 10,000 galaxies. Their pioneering work, “A Slice of the Universe”, showed that the “distribution of galaxies looks like a slice through the suds in the kitchen sink.” Geller and Huchra had discovered that the universe is filled with huge, extended, relatively thin structures composed of galaxies and clusters of galaxies surrounding huge volumes devoid of galaxies. Since that paper, numerous teams have extended the observational database by orders of magnitude, and theorists have reexamined earlier ideas of the universe, but the structures discovered by Geller and colleagues remain among the largest known structures in the universe.
Dr. Geller’s visualization techniques produced striking images and captured the public’s attention. The “stick-man” image from “A Slice of the Universe” was featured prominently in The New York Times. With her MacArthur Fellowship funds, Geller studied advanced filmmaking techniques and produced six movies, some showing simulated flights through the observed galaxy distributions. Her movie, “Where the Galaxies Are”, produced for the Air and Space Museum, won medals in international competitions, and set a high standard for future astronomical simulations.
Dr. Margaret Geller’s work is beautifully conceived, meticulously carried out, and discussed in terms that inspire scientists and captivate the public. The medal is engraved, “Margaret J. Geller, for discoveries about the remarkable nature of galaxy distribution in the universe.”
In 1786, two years after his election to the American Philosophical Society, John Hyacinth de Magellan of London, made a gift to the American Philosophical Society of 200 guineas for a medal to be awarded “to the author of the best discovery or most useful invention relating to navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy (mere natural history only excepted).” The medal, named the Magellanic Premium, was first awarded in 1790. It is the oldest medal recognizing scientific achievements given by a North American institution.
The selection committee consisted of chairman Charles P. Slichter, Research Professor of Physics and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics and Chemistry Emeritus at the University of Illinois; Nicolaas Bloembergen, Gerhard Gade University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University; Leo P. Kadanoff, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Physics and Mathematics Emeritus at the University of Chicago; and Vera C. Rubin, Staff Astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities
Caroline Humphrey
The 2008 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is Caroline Humphrey for her paper “Alternative Freedoms.” It was presented at the Society’s Spring General Meeting in April 2005 and published in the March 2007 issue of the Society's Proceedings.
Spring General Meeting
Award Ceremony
April 26, 2008
Agenda
Baruch S. Blumberg announces the Henry Allen Moe Prize
The 2008 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is Caroline Humphrey for her paper “Alternative Freedoms.” It was presented at the Society’s Spring General Meeting in April 2005 and published in the March 2007 issue of the Society's Proceedings.
In the paper Dr. Humphrey uses her experience in Russia to analyze the ideas of freedom held by ordinary Russians and to question the belief of Western leaders that their conceptions of freedom are applicable worldwide. She analyzes the ideas of freedom held by ordinary Russians and identifies three different concepts of freedom that, although derived from the past, were still present under the Soviet regime: svoboda, the individual freedom that came with the acquisition of privileged social status; mir, the freedom enjoyed through membership in one’s community; and volya, the emotional drive for self fulfillment. None of these is identical to the Western belief in individual political freedom, though svoboda is the closest. Since the end of the Soviet regime, political and cultural developments have introduced the population to Western ideas of freedom, but ordinary Russians have come to perceive this imported version of svoboda as a cover for new forms of privilege. As they struggle for meaning in their everyday lives, they often turn to the self respect of their volya, their free will. From this analysis Professor Humphrey concludes that our sermons on freedom will ring hollow in regions of the world that differ from us culturally.
Caroline Humphrey is University Professor of Asian Anthropology at Cambridge University, where she has headed the Department of Social Anthropology since 2001. She developed an interest in Russia as an exchange student in anthropology at Moscow State University, studying there in 1966-67 and again in 1974-75. In those years she managed to get permission to study a collective farm in Siberia and became one of a handful of scholars allowed to do research in Russia at that time. This led to her first book Karl Marx Collective: Economy and Society in a Siberian Collective Farm.
Since then Dr. Humphrey has conducted research throughout Asia, including studies of pastoralism and trade in northeastern Nepal; the religion and rituals of the Jains of Rajasthan in western India; and the shamanism of the Daurs in Inner Mongolia. A remarkable social anthropologist with an impressive command of languages, she has achieved an intimate association with and understanding of Russian and central Asian societies.
The co-founder and former director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit, Dr. Humphrey also helped organize "Environmental and Cultural Conservation in Inner Asia", a broad comparative study of the management of pastoral economies in Russia, Mongolia and China. Her many honors include the Staley Prize in Anthropology, the Royal Anthropological Institute's Rivers Memorial Medal and the Heldt Prize. Dr. Humphrey’s most recent book is The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies after Socialism (2002). Her current projects include a book on Mongolian historical consciousness and a collaborative project on post-socialist urban development in Asia. She was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2004.
The Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is awarded annually to the author of a paper in the humanities or jurisprudence read at a meeting of the Society. It was established in 1982 by a gift from the widow of Henry Allen Moe to honor the longtime head of the Guggenheim Foundation and president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. It pays particular tribute to his firm commitment to the humanities and those who pursue them.
The selection committee consisted of chairman Richard Herr, professor of history emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley; Christopher Jones, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics and History at Harvard University; and Elfriede R. Knauer, consulting scholar for the Mediterranean Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
