comm-morawetz.qxp 1/8/99 2:10 PM Page 352

Cathleen Morawetz Receives National Medal of Science

Cathleen S. Morawetz, pro- New York University in 1951. She was a Guggen- fessor emerita at the heim Fellow during 1966–67 and 1978–79. In 1993 Courant Institute of Math- she was named Outstanding Woman Scientist by ematical Sciences of New the Association of Women in Science. She delivered York University, has re- the AMS Gibbs Lecture (1981), an Invited Address ceived a 1998 National of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathe- Medal of Science “for pio- matics (1982), and the Emmy Noether Lecture of neering advances in partial the Association for Women in Mathematics (1983). differential equations and She is a member of the National Academy of Sci- wave propagation resulting ences. During 1995–96, Morawetz served as pres- in applications to aerody- ident of the AMS (the September 1993 issue of the namics, acoustics and op- Notices, pages 816–817, carried an account of her tics.” scientific work for her presidential candidacy). Cathleen S. Morawetz A press release from the The National Medal of Science, established by National Science Founda- Congress in 1959, is the nation’s highest scientific tion provided the following honor. The first National Medal of Science was description of her work: “In a series of three sig- awarded to Theodore van Karman in 1962. Since nificant papers in the 1950s, Morawetz used in- then, 362 individuals, including the 1998 medal- genious new estimates for the solution of mixed ists, have received the honor. In the past five years nonlinear partial differential equations that ulti- mately led to advanced studies of wing design in the National Medal of Science has been awarded aviation. In the early 1960s, she obtained impor- to four who work in the mathematical sciences: tant results in geometrical optics in connection with S.-T. Yau (1997), Richard Karp (1996), Stephen sonar and radar. It was known then that geomet- Smale (1996), and Martin Kruskal (1994). A dis- rical optics could be used to determine approxi- tinguished, independent twelve-member commit- mately the acoustic and electromagnetic fields tee is appointed by the president to review nomi- scattered by objects. It was believed that this ap- nations for the medal. The 1998 committee proximation became more accurate as the wave- consisted of Kenneth Arrow, Alfred Y. Cho, Elsa length approached zero. Morawetz showed that Garmire, Susan L. Graham, George S. Hammond, this is the case and obtained an estimate of the Arthur L. Jaffe, Eric S. Lander, Marcia K. McNutt, error. Her result placed geometrical optics on a Mario J. Molina, Vera C. Rubin (chair), Robert Schri- firmer foundation and led to further practical use effer, and Joan A. Steitz. Bruce Alberts, president of this approach.” of the National Academy of Sciences, served ex- Cathleen Synge Morawetz was born on May 5, officio on the committee, and Karl Erb of the 1923, in Toronto, Canada. After receiving a bach- National Science Foundation was the committee’s elor’s degree from the University of Toronto and executive secretary. a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute —Allyn Jackson of Technology, she received her doctorate from

352 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 46, NUMBER 3