Gunn wins National Medal of Science

Princeton - Princeton - James Gunn, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University, has been chosen to receive a National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor, for his sweeping contributions to modern stargazing, from theory to observation to gadget-building. Gunn is among nine scientists and engineers selected to receive the award, which President Barack Obama will present in a White House ceremony Wednesday, Oct. Elaine Fuchs, who earned her Ph.D. in biochemical sciences from Princeton in 1977, also will be honored. She is the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor at Rockefeller University. The medal is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government upon scientists and engineers. "These [researchers] are national icons, embodying the very best of American ingenuity and inspiring a new generation of thinkers and innovators," Obama said. "Their extraordinary achievements strengthen our nation every day - not just intellectually and technologically but also economically, by helping create new industries and opportunities that others before them could never have imagined." Gunn's early theoretical work helped establish the current understanding of how galaxies form, as well as the properties of intergalactic space.