Announcement of the Bethe Prize

Our efforts to create a Hans Bethe Prize of the American Physical Society have succeeded. Although the campaign was spearheaded by the Division of Nuclear Physics and the Division of Astrophysics, it has enjoyed wonderful support throughout the APS. We owe our colleagues in other fields many thanks. In its May meeting the APS Council approved the prize. It will be awarded annually beginning in 1998, and will carry a stipend of $7500 plus a travel grant to attend the Spring General Meeting.

The Bethe Prize effort was inspired by an address that Hans gave at a Washington APS meeting several years ago. He described himself as an astrophysicist and a nuclear physicist, and expressed his affection for these fields. (Hans is a long-time member of the DAP and DNP.) The prize is intended to reflect the breadth of Hans's interests, and will be awarded for outstanding work in either of these fields. The Divisions will work together in selecting the recipients, with the role of "lead Division" alternating.

Thanks to the generosity of more than 400 individuals, national and university laboratories, and industry, almost all of the needed $150,000 to fully endow the prize is now in hand. The fund raising will continue through the summer of 1996. If you have not already contributed, please consider doing so. Tax-deductible contributions (to "APS-Bethe Prize Fund") can be mailed to:

DNP Secretary/Treasurer Ben Gibson
Group T-5, MS-B283
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, NM 87545

The prize was officially announced at a Cornell reception on the occasion of Hans's 90th birthday, July 2, 1996. The presentation was made by Judy Franz, Executive Officer of the APS. Hans expressed the hope that the prize would inspire younger people to make progress on problems such as the supernova mechanism and the origin of nuclear saturation.

W.C. Haxton, E.M. Henley (August 1996) For the Bethe Prize Committee

Pictures from Hans's 90th birthday celebration and Bethe Prize announcement are below: