Physics alumnus Sidney Drell receives National Medal of Science

Arms control expert Sidney Drell, a theoretical high-energy particle physicist and University of Illinois alumnus, was awarded the nation’s highest scientific prize today in a ceremony at the White House. President Barak Obama presented Drell and 11 other eminent researchers with the National Medal of Science.

Drell (MS 1947, PhD 1949, Physics) was recognized for his research on quantum electrodynamics and quantum chronodynamics, and for applying his expertise in physics to public policy, national security, and intelligence.

"I am proud to honor these inspiring American innovators," President Obama said. "They represent the ingenuity and imagination that has long made this nation great—and they remind us of the enormous impact a few good ideas can have when these creative qualities are unleashed in an entrepreneurial environment."

Drell is a longstanding and still active member of an elite group of scientists, JASON, that advises the government on technical and highly classified national security matters. Since the 1960s, Drell has served on numerous advisory panels to Congress, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the Central Intelligence Agency. He has served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the President’s Science Advisory Committee, the Panel on Nuclear Weapons Safety of the House Armed Services Committee, the Technology Review Panel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senior Review Board of the Intelligence Community’s Technology Innovation Center.

"Many scientists have felt this responsibility, and it’s been a great asset to our nation," said Drell. "The scientific and technical community is creating innovations that affect the conditions of life. There are great advances, as with medical technologies, but there are also dangers that come with it. How do we best apply this for peace and for the good of people?"

He is currently a professor emeritus of physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, having retired as its deputy director in 1998, and is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. He is a retired member of the Board of Governors for both Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC (LLNS) and Los Alamos National Security LLC (LANS), the managing contractors for the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories. And served as the founding co-director of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control.

Drell said it is a responsibility of the scientific and technical community to participate in the political dialogue with respect to technologies that apply to national security. As a young professor, he had imagined his career would center around academics, but colleagues encouraged him also to contribute to broad issues of national security.

During and following the Cold War, he was a key voice against nuclear arms proliferation, and he helped to develop the verification methods for the world's first nuclear arms control treaty. He contributed to the development of the nation's first reconnaissance satellite, Corona. And he was a leading scientific critic of the ballistic missile defense system during the 1980s.

"I thought this would be the total focus of my life, the realization of a dream to be a high-energy particle physicist: to understand what energy is made of, what are the building blocks of matter, and what are the forces that bind them," said Drell. "But I also had to realize how to deal with the nightmare potential of a nuclear haulocaust. In the 1960s, theworld situation was one of great turmoil."

At the same White House ceremony, 11 inventors received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, including alumnus George R. Carruthers (BS 1961, PhD 1964, Aerospace Engineering; MS 1962, Nuclear Engineering).
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Writer: Siv Schwink, Department of Physics, 217/552-5671.

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