Lewis Thomas (November 25, 1913 – December 3, 1993) was an American physician, poet, etymologist , essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.
6-553: The Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science , named for its first recipient, Lewis Thomas , is an annual literary prize awarded by The Rockefeller University to scientists or physicians deemed to have accomplished a significant literary achievement; it recognizes "scientists as poets." Originally called the Lewis Thomas Prize for the Scientist as Poet, the award was first given in 1993. Recipients' writings bridge
12-484: A starting point. Others concern the cultural implications of scientific discoveries and the growing awareness of ecology . In his essay on Mahler's Ninth Symphony , Thomas addresses the anxieties produced by the development of nuclear weapons . Thomas is often quoted, given his notably eclectic interests and superlative prose style. Thomas was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961),
18-637: The Snail and Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony . In its first paperback edition, The Medusa and the Snail won another National Book Award in Science. His autobiography, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher , is a record of a century of medicine and the changes which occurred in it. He also published a book on etymology titled Et Cetera, Et Cetera , poems, and numerous scientific papers. Many of his essays discuss relationships among ideas or concepts using etymology as
24-571: The United States National Academy of Sciences (1972), and the American Philosophical Society (1976). The Lewis Thomas Prize is awarded annually by The Rockefeller University to a scientist for artistic achievement. He died in 1993 of Waldenstrom's disease, a rare lymphoma-like cancer. His daughter is writer Abigail Thomas . ‘Science progresses at the interface of the specialized and
30-776: The gap between the laboratory and the wider world, in the spirit of Lewis Thomas' collection of essays The Lives of a Cell . The prize-giving ceremony is usually in the form of a lecture; winners receive a medal, a citation, and a cash award. Subsequent recipients of the prize, awarded first for the year 1993 to Thomas, have been: Lewis Thomas Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School . He became Dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine , and President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute . His formative years as an independent medical researcher were at Tulane University School of Medicine . He
36-558: Was invited to write regular essays in the New England Journal of Medicine . One collection of those essays, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974), won annual National Book Awards in two categories , Arts and Letters and The Sciences (both awards were split). (He also won a Christopher Award for that book.) Two other collections of essays (originally published in NEJM and elsewhere) were The Medusa and
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