Medal Address Research Articles

Quest for excellence: The ultimate goal of the radiation oncologist: ASTRO gold medal address, 1992

I am deeply indebted to the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology for the opportunity it has given me to contribute in some small ways to the advancement of the specialty and for enhancing my own professional growth. Receiving this highly regarded Gold Medal Award would not have been possible without the encouragement and tolerance of my family, beginning with my parents, my sons, Carlos Santiago, Bernardo, and Edward, and my wife Susie, and her family, or without the strong support of a very competent and dedicated staff, who through the years have developed an outstanding radiation oncology program at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, or without the inspiration of my mentors, Dr. Gilbert H. Fletcher and Dr. William E. Powers, or without the collaboration of many of you, who have given me valuable advice and your friendship. In these days of turmoil in the political and, specifically, in the health care environment in the United States, I have chosen for this address a topic critical to our survival as an innovative and caring clinical specialty: The search for foundations and avenues to strengthen our scientific development, professional standing, and care rendered to our patients. Our specialty, since the discovery of x-rays by Roentgen (102) and radioactivity by Curie and Becquerel (16), has advanced at an extraordinary pace. Since Rubin’s Gold Medal Address (104) the active and total membership of ASTRO has grown steadily (Fig. 1 A), with substantial increase in academic positions, particularly at the instructor/ assistant professor level (Fig. lB), a reflection of the young character of our specialty and, more gratifying, the fact that we are attracting a new generation of bright, enthusiastic minds. Despite this growth, our ranks continue to fall short of those of medical oncologists, who number approximately 9000 (3 1) and have established a prominent role in the primary care of the patient with cancer (74). Over the past 90 years, radiation therapy alone, combined with surgery or chemotherapy or both has been shown to be an effective curative modality in many malignant neoplasias, with high survival rates in Stages I and II, but with a need for improvement in more advanced stages. Many clinical trials document improved local/regional tumor control with higher disease-free and, in some instances, overall survival with multimodality therapy than with one or two modalities (when two modalities are more effective) (87). Looking to the future, we should vigorously promote organ preservation in the management of patients with cancer, an approach that significantly augments the role of irradiation and profoundly affects the quality of life and psychoemotional state of our patients, as has been demonstrated in some head and neck tumors, carcinoma of the breast, esophagus, soft tissue sarcomas, carcinoma of the vulva, rectum, anus, and in pediatric tumors (15, 20, 32, 33, 47, 52, 65, 77, 88, 109) (Table 1). Whether in academic or community practice, every radiation oncologist must enthusiastically support and actively participate in properly designed and conducted clinical trials (institutional or cooperative groups) to develop and appropriately evaluate more effective therapeutic strategies. Noteworthy, despite substantial gain with administration of systemic cytotoxic drugs in some tumors, such as in malignant lymphomas and trophoblastic and testicular tumors in which chemotherapy alone is effective, or in other neoplasms such as in carcinoma of the breast, esophagus, colon, rectum, and anus, in which it is combined with irradiation or surgery, it should be emphasized

Think Small: One Day It May Be Worth A Billion

The Perkin Medal Address given by Lubomyr T. Romankiw, The 1993 Perkin Medalist, on March 10, 1993.

The Barringer Medal Address

Abstract— Terrestrial impact craters are important geological and geomorphological objects that are significant not only for scientific research but for industrial and commercial purposes. The structures may contain commercial minerals produced directly by thermodynamic transformation of target rocks (including primary forming ores) controlled by some morphological, structural or lithological factors and exposed in the crater. Iron and uranium ores, nonferrous metals, diamonds, coals, oil shales, hydrocarbons, mineral waters and other raw materials occur in impact craters. Impact morphostructures may be used for underground storage of gases or liquid waste material. Surface craters may serve as reservoirs for hydropower. These ring structures may be of value to society in other ways. Scientific investigation of them is especially important in comparative planetology, terrestrial geology and in other divisions of the natural sciences.

The Leonard Medal Address

Abstract— The science of nucleosynthesis was substantially inspired by chemical analyses of meteorites. As if in repayment, that theory now imbues meteoritics with enlarged meaning. I recount the emergence of four great issues for nucleosynthesis—issues that received decades of my own attention; and I describe unexpected abundance patterns within meteorites that were suggested by the resolution of those issues. The latter have altered the information content of meteoritic science. The issues are: 1. a quantitative s-process theory 2. cosmoradiogenic chronology 3. explosive nucleosynthesis and gamma-ray astronomy 4. cosmic chemical memory Starting from historical origins for each issue, I comment upon both the broad cultural canvas in which they lie and my own work in their establishment. Examples of predicted (or rationalized) meteoritic measurements illustrate our surprised delight at the expansion of the range and power of meteoritic science.

Revisiting “The strengths of pharmacy”: The 1953 Remington Medal address

Five reasons for the continued strength of the pharmacy profession, each of which was originally proposed in 1953 by Hugh Muldoon, are explored in this address by 1990 Remington Medalist Joseph A. Oddis. The strengths of pharmacy in the 1990s are based on the same factors that served the profession well in the 1950s. As outlined in Muldoon's 1953 Remington Medal address, these factors are (1) pharmacists' character and motivation, (2) the profession's public trust, (3) the profession's respect for education, (4) pharmacy's willingness to confront its problems, and (5) pharmacy's concern for the future. Today's pharmacists are strongly motivated; they continue to strive to raise the level of services provided in all practice settings and to maximize their value to patients. Pharmacists retain a high degree of public trust; they should take advantage of this position to expand their scope of services in areas such as managed care. During the 1990s pharmacy's concern for education is focused on pharmacy work force needs as a whole, including issues related to technical personnel and specialization as well as the role of the Pharm.D. degree in the overall education program. Pharmacy's willingness to resolve its problems is evident in the growth of such organizations as the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, which has allowed the profession to achieve strength through unity. Pharmacy's concern for the future is reflected in the deliberations at recent conferences on Pharmacy in the 21st Century, where participants concurred that pharmacy's highest priority is to demonstrate and communicate to others its value in health care.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Radiation-induced cancer as a factor in clinical decision making (the 1989 ASTRO Gold Medal Address)

1. Ionizing radiations are weak carcinogens. Under certain conditions they can induce cancers in experimental animals and humans. 2. This potential carcinogenicity has been a deterrent to the use of radiation therapy despite its many advantages in the management of patients with cancers. 3. In a range of clinical situations, such as the irradiation of cancers arising in the head and neck, breast, prostate and skin, an increase of second cancers can not be detected above the natural frequency of additional cancers. In the curative treatment of patients with Hodgkins disease, ionizing radiations are not associated with an increased frequency of leukemias and induced second tumors are no more frequent than following the use of alkylating agents. 4. All second tumors attributed to radiation therapy occur after a latent period of many years and except for leukemia usually are potentially curable. 5. The risks of radiation-induced second cancers are no greater than the risks of operative or anesthetic deaths and these catastrophes are immediate and non-remedial. 6. Therefore, at this time, the potential of radiation-induced cancers should not be a factor in the selection of treatment for patients with cancer.

Gold medal address: The radiation therapy oncology group—1987

Roentgen described X rays in 1 89517 and the Curies7 reported their discovery of radium in 1896. Almost immediately, the biologic effects of ionizing radiations were recognized. In January 1896, the first patient was treated by X rays for a carcinoma of the breast.8 The first patient cured by radiation therapy was reported in 1899 after which clinical radiation therapy had a long and painful growth period to the early 1920s. Many significant and important advances were made during this time, but techniques were inconsistent and often not reproducible. Technologic advances accumulated more rapidly than did basic biologic knowledge. The x-ray tube with a peak energy of 140 KV was developed by Coolidge in 19 13 and by 1922,100 KV X rays were available for deep radiation therapy. The field of clinical radiation oncology began at the International Congress of Oncology in Paris in 1922 when Coutard and Hautant presented evidence that advanced laryngeal cancer could be cured without disastrous treatment produced sequelae. By 1934, Coutard5 had developed a protracted fractionated scheme that remains the basis for current radiation therapy. The use of brachytherapy, starting with radium-226 in tubes, has increased steadily since 19 10 in the treatment of malignant tumors in many anatomic locations. With time, ionizing radiation was defined more precisely and treatment planning and delivery systems became more accurate and reproducible. X-ray generators operating at 8001,000 kilovolts were installed for medical use as early as 1932. These were followed by cyclotrons, synchrocyclotrons, betatrons, bevatrons, 6oCo teletherapy devices, linear accelerators, and nuclear reactors. Radioisotopes such as 6oCo, cesium137, iridium192, and iodine125 supplemented radium-226 brachytherapy techniques. There has been much growth in the knowledge of radiation therapy physics, radiation biology, clinical treatment planning, and the use of computers in radiation therapy. The last 2 decades have witnessed considerable advances in the treatment of cancer, with cure now being a realistic therapeutic objective. Many forms of disseminated tumors can be effectively palliated with prolongation of life. The American Cancer Society estimates that 965,000 new cases of invasive cancer will be diagnosed in 1987.’ Of that number, 7 1% of the patients will present with local and/or regional extension. About 56% of those will be cured by standard treatment techniques. A considerable proportion of patients who die will do so because of failure to control the disease process locally and regionally. This is clearly evident in patients who have malignant tumors of the head and neck, gastrointestinal tract, gynecologic system, genitourinary system, and skin, bone and soft tissue. To improve the potential for local control, multiple therapies have been investigated. These include brachytherapy with radiation and/or surgery, surgery and radiation therapy, intra-arterial chemotherapy and radiation therapy, particle radiations, and hyperthermia. Improvements in therapy can be attributed to progress in several major areas:

Gold medal address: Let your patient be your guide

Gold medal address: Let your patient be your guide

William C. Bray—Teacher and Herald of Inorganic Reaction Kinetics

This article is based on the Priestley Medal Address presented by Henry Taube on April 29, during the American Chemical Society spring meeting in Miami Beach. Taube is professor of chemistry at Stanford University. His research, which spans more than four decades, has played a key role in the development of modern inorganic chemistry. He is probably best known for his work on the mechanisms of oxidation-reduction reactions, particularly those of transition metal ions. The Priestley Medal, the society's highest award, recognizes his many contributions in inorganic chemistry and is the latest in a long list of honors he has received, including the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry . ...

Harold Clayton Urey, 29 April 1893 - 5 January 1981

Harold Clayton Urey was born in Walkerton, Indiana, on 29 April 1893. He only narrowly passed the examination after grade school for entry into high school. After graduating from high school in 1911 and spending the required three months of educational training, he taught in country schools for three years, first in Indiana and then in Montana, where his mother and stepfather, brother and sisters had gone. It was while teaching at a school in a mining camp in the Gallatian Mountains and staying with a family whose son, Brian O. Wilson, decided to go to college that Urey formed a desire to get a college education. In September 1914 he entered the University of Montana, Missoula, with the intention of studying psychology, but he majored in biology with a minor in chemistry. To earn money during these three years he waited at table in a girls’ dormitory and after the first year became an instructor in the biology department; one summer he worked on the railroad and on an irrigation scheme. On the occasion of his Willard Gibbs medal address, years later, Urey spoke warmly of the friendships and inspiration he had received from his professors at Montana, and singled out A. W. Bray in biology and E. H. Jesse, J. W. Howard and W. N. Jones in chemistry, who, he said, largely determined the direction of his scientific career. His first independent research project was a study of the protozoans in the Missoula river.

The Ripening of Time

This article is based on the Priestley Medal Address presented by Bryce Crawford Jr. on March 30 during the ACS spring meeting in Las Vegas. Crawford, who is professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota and who has been active in ACS affairs throughout his exemplary career, received the Priestley Medal, ACS's highest award, in recognition of his distinguished services to chemistry. The choice of topic for a Priestley Medal address is an opportunity and indeed a temptation. The specifications stipulate only that it should be to the interests of the general audience which will be present; and a captive audience to whom one can speak on any favorite topic one deems appropriate is a chance which comes all too seldom. My distinguished predecessors as recipients of this award have responded in an interesting variety of ways. Some have given a retrospective summary of their principal scientific field of endeavor; others simply have ...

Priestley Medal Address

This article is based on the Priestley Medal Address presented by Dr. Calvin last week at the ACS national meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Calvin, head of the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics at the U...

Priestley Medal Address

Priestley Medal Address

Institute of Acoustics Rayleigh Gold Medal Address: 1976

Institute of Acoustics Rayleigh Gold Medal Address: 1976

The Odyssey of an Invention Charles Goodyear Medal Address—1975

Abstract It is a special honor for me to receive the internationally acclaimed Charles Goodyear Medal for my work in the field of polyurethane chemistry. The least I can do is to express my gratitude with an acceptance speech about this subject, but this is not so easy for me as I have not mastered the English language well enough to formulate and translate my thoughts at the same time. Therefore, I must ask for your understanding while I read my English manuscript. The selection of a subject caused me a few headaches because, for many in the audience, a survey of polyurethane chemistry would just mean a repetition of well-known facts. Also, many monographs have been published in the meantime—by experts and by those who like to think they are. Furthermore, having retired seven years ago from active research, I do not want to report on the latest research developments of my former colleagues. Today, the refinement of formulations for various end uses and the development of new applications are of primary interest. For example, I am thinking of the integral-skin foam technology which makes it possible to produce parts with a completely smooth or textured surface using temperature-controlled metal molds. Such foams exhibit a density gradient across the foam which shows a transition from the noncellular skin to a low-density core. Today I would like to tell you how the discovery of polyurethane came about, a most dramatic story. You will find that here—as with many important discoveries—a new idea was not sufficient in itself. What was also needed was an enterprising and optimistic spirit, tempered by controlled self-criticism, in order to succeed in a venture which in the beginning seemed hopeless, both technically and economically. In the early years of my career I was entrusted with the management of organic research in the Leverkusen plant of the former I. G. Farben. My main fields were dyestuffs, organic intermediates, and the pertinent basic research. Although dyestuff chemistry is still my first love, I always knew that an unusual increase in demand could not be expected. New dyestuffs and dye processes could only succeed at the expense of the olders ones. I tried, therefore, to place the research emphasis in my laboratory on two subjects, namely, plant-protection chemistry and macromolecular chemistry. We succeeded in both fields. In 1935 we discovered the phosphorus insecticides (G. Schrader), which are today among the most important insecticides in the world.

Priestley Medal Address

Chemistry may rightly be defined as the science of molecules. Throughout the multifarious ramifications of contemporary chemistry, devotees and practitioners of this science share a common concern ...

Priestley Medal Address

I wish to thank the American Chemical Society and its committee for the award of the Priestley Medal. I was surprised when I heard of this award. I had thought that I had wandered so far over the fields of science, without developing any particular field of chemistry in detail, that I could hardly expect to win this medal in honor of the discoverer of oxygen. Then, I began to think a little about the things I had really done. I began by making some thermodynamic calculations at Berkeley, and then tried to do some work in molecular spectra, and you know, one field got named the Urey-Bradley field. I have sort of forgotten what it is, but it had to do with calculating the vibration frequencies of diatomic molecules. At about the same time, Arthur Ruark and I wrote our book on Atoms, Molecules and Quanta. All young men should write books. This gives ...

1971 rayleigh gold medal address: Calculating the perceived level of light and sound

1971 rayleigh gold medal address: Calculating the perceived level of light and sound

Lithium Polymerization Catalysts. Charles Goodyear Medal Address—1972

Abstract The growth of the Lithium Polymerization Catalysts system has been an interesting and intriguing study. Abraham Lincoln, in one of his addresses, indicated that no one would long remember what was said or done there on that occasion. Thus unwittingly, he may have forecast the insignificance of this paper in its effect on the scientific world. It is presumed that none of you here, unless he may have been a Charles Goodyear medalist, can recall many of the important statements or thoughts expressed on this occasion by prior Charles Goodyear Medalists. Therefore, you need not recall anything that is said here today. When one starts a research project, the first thing that is done is to review the literature to find out what has already been done in that field. Thus, we find that in 1826, Faraday published his first analysis of rubber latex. He found that it contained water, rubber, vegetable matter rich in nitrogen and extractable material. He also established that rubber contained the elements of Carbon and Hydrogen. His was the first significant publication about rubber since that of de la Condamine in 1751 to the Academie of Science in Paris. There were several other publications prior to the end of that century, but they did not seem too significant from a scientific standpoint. A German scientist, Frederich Karl Himly, had been studying in Göttingen for a year and a half, about rubber and its destructive distillation products, and he discussed his findings in his Doctors dissertation in 1835. Himly's thesis was published in a small paper back booklet but it did not get wide distribution, possibly due to the fact that it was written in Latin, as was often the case in those days. A copy of this publication was found in the Research Library of The Firestone Tire & Eubber Company about 1922. Imprinted on the cover was the name of M. J. Sehleiden and written on the outside, the name of M. Prinzhom. Also there was the name of C. C. Goodrich, and H. W. Kugler, who later became the Chief Chemist of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company.

Creativity in Rubber Industry Research. Charles Goodyear Medal Address—1971

Abstract Over the span of 36 years in rubber research and development, I was involved in a wide range of problems, some of which ended in frustration, others fortunately in success. Overall, during this entire period, I've had a whale of a good time. During these years nothing has provided me more satisfaction than working with creative people. And since this phenomenon of creativity is so important and yet so little understood, I thought I'd see whether from my own experience I could throw a little light on it today. My main qualification is that I have for years been interested in creativity, what it is, how it manifests itself, the type of people who exhibit it, and how they may be encouraged toward greater efficiency. Successful creativity, in general, involves conceiving new ideas and following them through to where they become potentially useful. It does not only mean the synthesis of a new chemical, but more broadly, the achieving of any new, not previously recognized, result. This might involve merely bringing together two well-known mechanical devices never before associated. For example, the electric blanket invented by Kearsley of General Electric: blankets and electric heating wire were well known, separately, but it took Kearsley's imagination to bring them together into a brand-new useful product. Many instances of creativity sart with Observation, the creative person being alert for new combinations and phenomena, being led on by his scientific Curiosity, aroused by his Imagination and Enthusiasm, and drawing upon his Memory, since creative thinking is frequenly no more than bringing together factors not hitherto associated. Among the requisite personal characteristics for creativity arc a prepared mind, a large range of skills and technical know-how, a certain mechanical ingenuity, and a favorable environment. The creative mind must, of course, have imagination, as well as enthusiam. Its results may range from discovering a whole new world of knowledge to merely inventing an easier way of doing an old job. To enhance the creativity of research personnel, management cannot impose a rigid application of job specialization and supervisory control, but must create a climate with such necessary freedom and flexibiliy as to be conducive to invention. Technological innovations can result from following various creativity routes which, for convenience here, I have divided into seven categories. For a clearer picture of how creativity manifests itself, let us examine some appropriate examples, based on projects with which I had direct personal contact. Of these examples, some are important, others relatively minor, the basis of selection being primarily suitability for illustrating various facets of creativity. These might be considered case histories, as it were, of creativity.