Wistar Director And Agricultural Scientist Receive Philadelphia's John Scott Awards

Orville Vogel, professor emeritus of agronomy and soil at Washington State University, and Hilary Koprowski, director of the Wistar Institute, received the 1990 John Scott Awards at a November 27 ceremony. The awards, given by the city of Philadelphia's Board of Directors of City Trusts, recognize men and women whose inventions have contributed to the "comfort, welfare and happiness" of mankind. Vogel, 82, was honored for his breeding of semidwarf wheats, which helped spawn the "green revolution" and contributed to an increase in the world's food supplies. The 74-year-old Koprowski, who has been director of the Philadelphia-based independent biomedical research center since 1957, was recognized for his contributions to rabies vaccine research and development. Each of the honorees received a $10,000 cash award, a copper medal, and a certificate. Herbert Rothbart, director of the United States Department of Agriculture's Eastern Regional Research Center and a member of the awards' advisory committee, said at the ceremony that Vogel's contribution was "breeding stiffer, shorter wheats that would not get stuck in the rain and rot. In the 1950s, his semidwarf wheat increased productivity 100 percent for the farmers." Eventually, the seeds were provided to underdeveloped countries. "In just the state of Washington, today, the semidwarf wheat is worth $60 million a year to farmers," said Rothbart. "In India, it is incalculable how many lives it saved." Vogel, who was ill, could not attend the ceremony but was represented by his son, Richard, who said that his father planned to donate his prize money to the Washington State Foundation, since "it's hard to get funding for research on wheat these days." At the awards presentation, Jonathan Rhoads, emeritus professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, enumerated Koprowski's accomplishments, "any one of which could have merited him the John Scott Award." Koprowski developed a polio vaccine that has been extensively used in Africa and Europe, and he is actively involved in cancer, AIDS, and neurology research. But, said Rhoads, the committee decided to honor him for the rabies vaccine because it is easy to prescribe and "it doesn't make people sick like the old Pasteur vaccine." In his acceptance speech, Koprowski recalled that it took three years before he could get approval to have his vaccine field-tested in wild raccoons. "The vaccine is embedded in sponges that have a taste that appeals to raccoons. We call it Racky Snack," said Koprowski. He hopes to do more field tests on the rabies vaccine this May. John Scott, the initiator of the awards, was a 19th-century druggist from Edinburgh, Scotland, who, it is believed, never set foot in America but admired Benjamin Franklin. In his will, Scott bequeathed a $3,000 trust to the city of Philadelphia and stipulated that the 3 percent interest accumulated on the trust be used to reward "ingenious men and women who make useful inventions." At the time, the original cash premium was not to exceed $20. "The amount of the award today is an indication of the board's dedication and fiduciary skills through the 156 years since [the prize] has been awarded," said board president William Austin Meehan at the presentation. Since 1920, the board has selected an advisory committee to nominate recipients of international standing instead of relying on inventors to nominate themselves. The first John Scott Awards were given in 1834 to honor the inventions of the knitting machine and the door lock. In this century, the awards have recognized achievements in science and medicine, such as the prevention of yellow fever and malaria and the isolation of penicillin and streptomycin. Last year's recipient, Alan MacDiarmid, professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, was honored for his research on conducting polymers (The Scientist, Dec. 10, 1990, page 18). Previous John Scott Award recipients include Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Jonas Salk, and Guglielmo Marconi. --Robin Eisner

Wistar Director And Agricultural Scientist Receive Philadelphia's John Scott Awards

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