Gilbert F.White, distinguished professor emeritus of geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has won the prestigious National Medal of Science for 2000, President Clinton announced on Monday, Nov. 13.
White is one of 12 scientists nationwide selected to receive the National Medal of Science this year, the nation's highest scientific honor. White was cited for his outstanding leadership and scientific contributions to geography and environmental sciences and for helping shape the nation's policies on flood plains, water use and natural disasters for more than five decades.
Besides being known as the "father of flood-plain management," White has made major contributions to the study of water systems in developing countries, global environmental change, international cooperation, nuclear winter, geography education and the mitigation of natural hazards including earthquakes, hurricanes, and drought.
Clinton is scheduled to present the National Medal of Science to White and the other recipients at a Dec. 1 awards dinner in Washington, D.C.
White is only the third CU-Boulder faculty member to win the award. Nobel laureate Thomas Cech, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, won the award in 1995 and Keith Porter, former faculty member and chair of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, won in 1977.
White, 88, is CU-Boulder's Gustavson distinguished professor emeritus of geography, founder of CU's Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center and former director of CU's Institute of Behavioral Science. He joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1970 after 14 years as a professor at the University of Chicago and 10 years as president of Haverford College in Pennsylvania. He still conducts research and is active on the CU-Boulder campus.
"Professor White is richly deserving of this honor," said Richard L. Byyny, chancellor. "He exemplifies the creativity and commitment to advancement of knowledge that makes our university great."
As a graduate student in the late 1930s, White studied the Mississippi River Basin for the federal government and proposed what was then considered a radical idea. At the time, "People were very attracted by the notion that man could control nature to best serve his needs," he said. While other planners followed a flood-control policy based on the construction of dams, White questioned the impact of such projects and suggested alternatives.
His doctoral dissertation has since been called the most influential ever written by an American geographer. "Floods are 'acts of God,' but flood losses are largely acts of man," he wrote in 1942.
Today planners tend to look at the landscape the way White does, considering a broad range of alternatives to cope with floods including land-use planning, upstream watershed treatment, flood-proofing buildings, insurance, emergency evacuation, and dams and other structures.
White has been a key player in many of the world's biggest environmental developments over the last 50 years. He contributed to the study of water issues in East Africa, the Aral Sea basin, the Lower Mekong basin and the Middle East. His work changed the way the profession thinks about water resources and how societies approach the management of water.
White earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in geography at the University of Chicago. A Quaker, White was a conscientious objector to military service during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, under the American Friends Service Committee, he helped assist children and refugees in France, was detained by the Nazis for a year in Germany and later chaired the AFSC from 1963 to 1969.
At the age of 34, White became president of Haverford College, the first college founded by the Quakers. He served there until 1955 when he returned to the University of Chicago.
White was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 1973 and received the academy's highest individual award – the Public Welfare Medal -- earlier this year. He has been honored with numerous other awards including the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal in 1994, the Vautrin Lud International Prize in Geography in 1992, the Volvo Environment Prize in 1995, the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Award in 1986, the United Nation’s Sasakawa International Environmental Prize in 1985 and the International Water Resources Association Millennium Award in 2000.
The National Medal of Science was established in 1959 and has been awarded to 386 distinguished scientists and engineers, including this year's recipients. For more information and a complete list of recipients visit the Web site at .
Contact information:
Gilbert White, (303) 492-6818
Mary Fran Myers, Institute for Behavioral Sciences (303) 492-6818
Peter Caughey, Office of News Services (303) 492-4007
Office of News Services
3100 Marine Street, 5th Floor
584 UCB
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0854
(303) 492-6431