Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. The White House, following recommendations from participating agencies, confers the awards annually. To be eligible for a Presidential Award, an individual must be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident. Some of the winning scientists and engineers receive up to a five-year research grant.

History In February 1996, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) was commissioned by President Bill Clinton to create an award program that would honor and support the achievements of young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers in the fields of science and technology. The stated aim of the award is to help maintain the leadership position of the United States in science.

Originally, 60 recipients received the PECASE award per year. In 2008, the number of awardees was increased to 100 annually. The 2002 PECASE awards were not announced until May 2004 due to bureaucratic delays within the Bush administration. The 2013 PECASE awards were announced in February 2016 after a 2-year delay.

The Trump administration announced the 2015, 2016, and 2017 awardees in 2019 with the awards presented by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Agencies The agencies participating in the PECASE Awards program are: Department of Agriculture Department of Commerce Department of Defense Department of Energy Department of Education Department of Health and Human Services: National Institutes of Health Department of the Interior: United States Geological Survey Department of Transportation Department of Veterans Affairs Environmental Protection Agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Science Foundation Smithsonian Institution United States Intelligence Community

Recipients 1996

Following the creation of PECASE in February 1996, President Bill Clinton announced 60 recipients on December 16 of that year:

Department of Agriculture

Pina Fratamico, Agricultural Research Service Barbara Gartner, Oregon State University Kenton Rodgers, North Dakota State University

Department of Commerce

Eric Cornell, NIST Physics Laboratory John Daniel, NOAA Environmental Research Laboratories Roland Pozo, NIST Computing and Applied Mathematics Laboratory David Stensrud, NOAA Environmental Research Laboratories

Department of Defense

Andrea Bertozzi, Duke University Nesbitt Hagood, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gail Kineke, University of South Carolina Paul Laibinis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Venkatakrishnan Selvamanickam, Intermagnetics General Corporation Peter Sercel, University of Oregon

Department of Energy

Shenda M. Baker, Los Alamos National Laboratory Richard A. Cairncross, Sandia National Laboratories Christine Hartmann, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory John P. Hill, Brookhaven National Laboratory Philip M. Jardine, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Michael Smith, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Department of Veterans Affairs

Melissa Clark, VA Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee and Vanderbilt University Joseph Cubells, VA Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut and Yale University

Environmental Protection Agency

David Barnes, University of Arkansas Keith Grasman, Wright State University Qing-Huo Liu, New Mexico State University

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dora Angelaki, University of Mississippi Medical Center Christopher Chyba, Princeton University Andrea Donnellan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Heidi Sosik, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ellen Stofan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Kimberly Weaver, Johns Hopkins University

National Institutes of Health 10 awardees: Allison Doupe, University of California, San Francisco Ali Hemmati-Brivanlou, Rockefeller University Paul Khavari, Stanford University Aron Lukacher, Emory University Deirdre Meldrum, University of Washington Lee Ann Niswander, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute for Cancer Research David Self, Yale University Morgan Sheng, Massachusetts General Hospital Mark Walter, University of Alabama at Birmingham Keith Woerpel, University of California, Irvine

National Science Foundation 20 awardees: David T. Burke, University of Michigan Erick M. Carreira, California Institute of Technology Fengshan Frank Chen, Florida International University Peter J. Delfyett, University of Central Florida Juan J. de Pablo, University of Wisconsin–Madison Bonnie J. Dorr, University of Maryland, College Park Weinan E, New York University Marc A. Edwards, University of Colorado Mark A. Gluck, Rutgers University Marilyn R. Gunner, City College of New York Daniel P. Hess, University of South Florida Robert T. Kennedy, University of Florida Michael R. Kremer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Charles M. Marcus, Stanford University Massoud Pedram, University of Southern California Ruey-Jen Hwu Sadwick, University of Utah John W. Sutherland, Michigan Technical University Todd A. Verdoorn, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Michael E. Wysession, Washington University in St. Louis John Yin, Dartmouth College

1997

On October 23, 1997, President Bill Clinton announced 60 recipients of the PECASE for that year:

Department of Agriculture Eric J. Gustafson, North Central Forest Experiment Station Laura Lee McConnell, Environmental Chemistry Laboratory Sara L. F. Sunden, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Department of Commerce Gregory T. Linteris, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, NIST Christopher R. Monroe, Physics Laboratory, NIST Erik N. Rasmussen, University of Oklahoma Thomas J. Silva, Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, NIST

Department of Defense Nicholas L. Abbott, University of California, Davis David S. Citrin, Washington State University Robert L. Clark Jr., Duke University Elliot Douglas, University of Florida Joel T. Johnson, Ohio State University Ying-Cheng Lai, University of Kansas Peter Schiffer, University of Notre Dame

Department of Energy Bruno S. Bauer, Los Alamos National Laboratory Andrew Brandt, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory David J. Dean, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Lori A. Freitag, Argonne National Laboratory Thomas J. Matula, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory David E. Newman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory John Shanklin, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Department of Veterans Affairs J. Michael Gaziano, VA Medical Center Martin R. Gluck, VA Medical Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Elfatih A. B. Eltahir, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jonathan A. Foley, University of Wisconsin–Madison Cila Herman, Johns Hopkins University Mark V. Hurwitz, University of California, Berkeley Todd T. Schlegel, Johnson Space Center Eun-Suk Seo, University of Maryland, College Park

National Institutes of Health 11 awardees: Russ B. Altman, Stanford University Anirvan Ghosh, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Salk Institute Macrae F. Linton, Vanderbilt University Peter Mombaerts, Rockefeller University Michael K. Rosen, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute for Cancer Research Patrick J. Stover, Cornell University Michele S. Swanson, University of Michigan Medical School Roland M. Tisch, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Sharon L. Walsh, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center David A. Wassarman, National Institute of Child Health and Development

National Science Foundation 20 awardees: Jill Bargonetti, Hunter College Peter N. Belhumeur, Yale University Geoffrey E. Hill, Auburn University Daniel P. Lathrop, Emory University Jon P. Longtin, Stony Brook University Timothy A. McKay, University of Michigan Ann M. Sastry, University of Michigan Steven W. McLaughlin, Georgia Institute of Technology Renée J. Miller, Ohio State University David P. Morton, University of Texas at Austin Linda K. Nozick, Cornell University Kate Okikiolu, University of California, San Diego Lori A. Setton, Duke University Jaswinder P. Singh, Princeton University Eileen M. Spain, Occidental College Florence I. Thomas, Dauphin Island Sea Lab Lonny L. Thompson, Clemson University Daniel W. van der Weide, University of Delaware Patricia A. Van Zandt, Johns Hopkins University Miguel Velez-Reyes, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

1998 On February 10, 1999, President Bill Clinton announced the 60 recipients of the PECASE for 1998:

Department of Agriculture John Dobrinsky, USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Service Krishna Niyogi, University of California, Berkeley Brian J. Palik, Forest Service North Central Forest Experiment Station

Department of Commerce Michael H. Bergin, University of Colorado Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, NOAA (now Georgia Tech) Sharon C. Glotzer, Material Sciences and Engineering Laboratory, NIST Anthony J. Kearsley, Information Technology Laboratory, NIST Joseph A. Shaw, Environmental Technology Laboratory, NOAA (now Montana State University)

Department of Defense Daniel J. Blumenthal, University of California, Santa Barbara Elizabeth C. Dickey, University of Kentucky Miroslav Krstic, University of California, San Diego John D. O'Brien, University of Southern California Robert G. Parker, Ohio State University Guillermo Sapiro, University of Minnesota

Department of Energy Mari Lou Balmer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Tonya L. Kuhl, University of California, Santa Barbara James E. Lee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Roya Maboudian, University of California, Berkeley Anthony Mezzacappa, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Christopher P. Palmer, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Gary P. Wiederrecht, Argonne National Laboratory

Department of Veterans Affairs Alan E. Mast, VA Medical Center Richard N. Pierson, VA Medical Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mitchell S. Albert, Longwood Medical Research Center Howard Pearlman, University of Southern California Shobita Satyapal, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Azadeh Tabazadeh, NASA Ames Research Center Paul O. Wennberg, California Institute of Technology Andrew Westphal, Space Science Laboratory, University of California

National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services 12 awardees: Angelika B. Amon, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Marlene Behrmann, Carnegie Mellon University Mark E. Brezinski, Massachusetts General Hospital David D. Chang, University of California, Los Angeles Brian D. Dynlacht, Harvard University Ulrike A. Heberlein, San Francisco General Hospital Linda A. Hicke, Northwestern University Effie W. Petersdorf, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Gregory J. Quirk, Urb. Punto Oro Jeffrey Struewing, National Cancer Institute, NIH Mark Von Zastrow, University of California Matthew Waldor, New England Medical Center

National Science Foundation 20 awardees: Mario Affatigato, Coe College Eric I. Altman, Yale University Nalini Ambady, Harvard University Alexander Barvinok, University of Michigan Pei Cao, University of Wisconsin–Madison Janet Conrad, Columbia University Christopher J. Diorio, University of Washington Shirley J. Dyke, Washington University in St. Louis Rhonda F. Drayton, University of Illinois, Chicago Cassandra L. Fraser, University of Virginia Julie A. Jacko, University of Wisconsin–Madison Robert B. Jackson, University of Texas Austin Sugih Jamin, University of Michigan Elizabeth Lada, University of Florida Gregory H. Leazer, University of California, Los Angeles Gina M. MacDonald, James Madison University Scot Martin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Hudson K. Reeve, Cornell University