Oppenheimer Award
The Frank Oppenheimer Science and Society Award was founded in 2005 and is awarded jointly each semester by the Department of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Physics. The award recognizes excellence in first-year (freshman) writing in the form of a paper produced in Nature and Human Values (NHV) that examines social, ethical, economic, historical, political, and/or environmental issues.
Named after Frank Oppenheimer, atomic physicist and brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose role in the Manhattan Project is studied in HASS 100. This is a $400 award. Each NHV writing instructor submits one paper for consideration. The recipient is chosen by a panel of two judges from the NHV lecturing faculty and one judge from the Physics faculty. HASS and Physics gratefully acknowledge Mr. Oppenheimer’s family for allowing us to use his name for this award.
Previous Winners
–The Potentially Problematic Potency of Plant Patents by Cat Cronin
“Accountability is desperately needed when our social and political leaders discuss the causes and effects of climate change, and we currently see none.”
– The Viability of Natural Gas by Hunter Harley
“When the doctors taking the organs become the men and women that also must execute the prisoner, do we enter the frightening territory of killing for organs?”
– Dead Man Walking by Rachel Mizenko
The state’s water diversions have farmers and environmentalists thinking the other is to blame, yet the culprit it is the discrepancy of water regulations.
–Who’s Left High and Dry by Audrey Corzine