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Pollock Award

Telescope

The Herbert C. Pollock Award was established by the Dudley Observatory to honor the long service of Dr. Pollock as a member and past President of the Dudley Observatory Board of Trustees.

The purpose of the Award is to provide encouragement and support for an innovative project in the history of astronomy or astrophysics, to be undertaken by a faculty member, research associate, or postdoctoral associated with a college, university, nonprofit research institution or observatory located in North America. Applications from persons meeting the other requirements, who are not currently affiliated with any institution will also be considered.

Special consideration will be given to proposals that involve the use of the Dudley Observatory Archives, the Dudley Collection of early astronomical works housed at Union College or the Benjamin A. Gould, Jr. library held by Dudley Observatory.

The Award consists of a maximum of $5,000 to be distributed in the year of the Award. A recipient of the Pollock Award may not reapply for a new award for three years.

Application Procedures
The application should include the following parts:

1.) A descriptive title with a brief account of the project, not to exceed four pages. The description should permit a selection committee of historians and other scholars to judge what is proposed and how completion of the project would contribute to historical knowledge.

2.) A one-page non-technical "executive summary" of the project to be evaluated by non-historians.

3.) A budget showing how the Award funds would be spent, together with a description of the applicant's current funding and the funding agency, if any, for present work. --No Overhead Charges will be permitted.

4.) A biographical sketch and personal bibliography - not to exceed four pages.

5.) The names and affiliations of two scientists or other scholars who may be contacted by the Selection Committee, should the need arise, as well as the name of the applicant's supervisor or Department Chair. Letters of support should not be included with the application.

The complete application must be received by Dudley Observatory
by November 15, 2009.

Selection Procedures
The Pollock Award Selection Committee will make recommendations to the Board of Trustees of the Dudley Observatory following review of the applications. The recipient of the Pollock Award is announced in January. 

 

 Previous winners of the Herbert C. Pollock Award
2009

Dr. Keith Snedegar
Professor of History, Utah Valley University
Visiting Scholar, African Studies Center, Michigan State University

“A Visual Photometry of A. W. Roberts, South African Variable Star Observer”

2008 Dr. Craig B. Waff
Air Force Research Laboratory History Office

Orator to the Stars: An Investigation of the Scope, Content, Style, and Influence of Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel’s Public Astronomical Lecturing Activity (1842-1860)

2007 Ms. Trudy E. Bell
Science/Technology Writer & Editor

George Washington Hough: Life, Observations, Inventions, and Influence

2006 Dr. Lewis Pyenson
University of Louisiana

A Thousand Years of Sky Images

2005 Dr. Jorge Bartolucci
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Drs. Santiago Paolantinio & Edgardo Minniti
Universidad Nacional de Cordoba

American Astronomers Cooperation in the Establishment of the National Observatory of Cordoba, Argentina.  The Case of Dudley Observatory

2004 Ms. Trudy E. Bell
Unaffiliated

Inventorying the Stars: Astronomers’ Voluntary Exile in Southern Observing Expeditions

2003 Dr. Bradley Schaefer
University of Texas at Austin

Precise Latitude and Date for the Constellation Lore in Aratus' Phaenomena

2002 Dr. William L. Vanderburgh
Wichita State University

Dark Matters in Contemporary Astrophysics: A Case Study in Theory Choice and Evidential Reasoning

2001 Dr. Patricia Whitesell
Detroit Observatory

Franz Brunnow's Year of Leadership at the Dudley Observatory, 1859-1860

2001 Dr. Tom English
Gardner-Webb University

Solar Eclipse Expeditions in America: 1869-1900

2000 Dr. Alice N. Walters
University of Massachusetts Lowell

Objectifying Nature: Culture, Commerce and Science in Britain and America, 1750-1850

1999 No Award Given
 
1998 Dr. Richard Staley
University of Chicago

Albert Michelson and the Observatory: Precision Measurement, the Interferometer, and the Dialogue between Physics and Astronomy

1997 Dr. Peter W. Wlasuk
Florida International University

A Biography of Lewis Swift and Catalogue of his Nonstellar Objects, with Corrections to the NGC, ICs 1 & 2

1997 Dr. Myles W. Jackson
University of Chicago

A Spectrum of Belief: the Communicability of Joseph von Fraunhofer's Artisanal, Optical Knowledge

1996 Dr. Ian R. Bartky
Unaffiliated

Scientific Foundations of the Dudley Observatory

1996 Dr. Frederic J. Baumgartner
Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Astrology's Role in the Scientific Revolution
1996 Dr. David S. P. Dearborn
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Solar Observations at the Origin Place of the Sun

1996 Dr. Mark Littman
University of Tennessee

Heavens on Fire: the Great Leonid Meteor Storms

1996 Dr. Kevin D. Pang
Pang & Associates

A History of Research on the Dynamics of the Earth-Moon System at the Tricentenary of Halley's Discovery