SPD Hale Prize Citations

Previous winners of the George Ellery Hale Prize

More citations will be added as they become available. Any member who has the text of earlier Hale prize citations is encouraged to contact the Division Secretary.

Eugene N. Parker, 1978

The first Hale Prize was awarded to Eugene Parker at the Madison meeting in June 1978, for his "imaginative and stimulating contributions in which plasma and magntohydrodynamical physics have been applied to astronomy." Parker delivered the Hale Prize lecture at the joint AAS/SPD meeting in Wellesley in 1979.

ASP Bruce Medal, 1997

John P. Wild, 1980

John W. Evans, 1982

Leo Goldberg, 1984

Peter A. Sturrock, 1986

Cornelis de Jager, 1988

Richard N. Tousey, 1990

Horace W. Babcock, 1992

ASP Bruce Medal, 1969

Douglas O. Gough, 1994

The 1995 Hale Prize is to be awarded to Professor Douglas Gough of the University of Cambridge. Gough has contributed with distinction to many aspects of solar physics, astrophysics and fluid dynamics, including nonlinear convection in stars, the coupling of turbulent convection to pulsations, and stellar structure. Gough's theoretical inquiry has often combined fluid theory and the detailed physics of stellar structure, as when he showed that the core of the sun is unstable to gravity modes. This instability may lead to episodes of mixing, casting some doubt on standard quiescent models. In recent years, Gough has devoted most of his attention to helioseismology, to which he has made many notable contributions. He has led the way in applying inversion techniques to infer the internal structure and the distribution of angular velocity in the interior, and was the first to use helioseismic data to determine the depth of the convection zone. He has also used helioseismic data to investigate solar opacities, the equation of state, the helium abundance, and the neutrino problem. Gough has also played a significant role in the development of the GONG project, the helioseismological experiments on SoHO, and observational programs in asteroseismology.

Raymond Davis, 1996

In recognition of his monumental contribution to solar physics by conceiving, planning, constructing, operating, and analyzing data from, an experiment to measure the solar neutrino flux

AAS Tinsley Prize, 1994; Nobel Prize, 2002

Richard B. Dunn, 1998

For his bold and imaginative innovation of instrumentation for solar physics, his discovery of important new phenomena on the Sun, and the impact of his contributions on solar physicists world wide.

John W. Harvey, 1999

The 1999 Hale Prize is awarded to John W. Harvey for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of the nature of solar magnetic fields and of the internal structure of the Sun through helioseismology, for his development of innovative solar instrumentation, and for his selfless and untiring service to the solar physics community.

Loren W. Acton, 2000

The 2000 Hale Prize is awarded to Loren Acton for his pioneering, instrumental, and analytical work in soft x-ray observations of the active sun and for his unstinting, active, and helpful support of research and researchers in this and other areas of solar physics.

Alan M. Title, 2001

The 2001 Hale Prize is awarded to Alan Title for his exceptional leadership in developing multiple, innovative, high resolution telescopes and interpreting their data to dramatically advance our understanding of the sun and for his generous public service on behalf of the solar and solar-terrestrial communities.

Eric R. Priest, 2002

The Hale Prize for 2002 is awarded to Eric Priest for his seminal contributions to investigations of the role of the magnetic field in solar activity, and for his tireless advocacy of solar physics in all corners of the world.

Eric Priest's Hale Prize lecture (HTML format)
Photos from the Hale Prize ceremony on June 6, 2002.

Robert F. Howard, 2003

The 2003 Hale Prize is awarded to Robert F. Howard for his pioneering discoveries of fundamental properties of solar magnetic and velocity fields; initiating modern instrumentation and archiving methods for long-term solar observations; and selfless mentoring, collaboration, and leadership of solar physics research programs and institutions.

Robert P. Lin, 2004

The 2004 Hale Prize is awarded to Robert Lin for pioneering experimental work on the detection of high energy solar radiation and particles, for his many discoveries in the field of high energy solar and heliospheric physics and for his generous and untiring leadership of, and support for, research programs and projects in this field.

Spiro Antiochos, 2005

The 2005 Hale Prize is awarded to Spiro Antiochos for his work on the thermodynamics and stability of coronal magnetic fields and for his outstanding public service to the solar research community.

Spiro Antiochos' Hale Prize lecture (tar gzipped: 87 Mbytes, uncompresses to over 200 Mbytes)

Peter A. Gilman, 2006

The 2006 Hale Prize is awarded to Peter A. Gilman for his unique insights and substantial scientific achievements in understanding the dynamics of the solar convection zone and the mechanism of the Sun's magnetic dynamo and for his leadership and support of solar physics research programs.

Peter Gilman's Hale Prize lecture and animations

Mukul Kundu, 2007

The 2007 Hale Prize is awarded to Mukul R. Kundu for his many outstanding contributions to the field of solar radio astronomy and for his service to the solar community in the U.S. and abroad.

Hugh Hudson, 2008

The 2008 Hale Prize is awarded to Hugh S. Hudson for his fundamental contributions to many aspect of solar and heliospheric physics, in particular his studies of magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in solar flares, the initiation of coronal mass ejections, nanoflare coronal heating, and the variability of the solar irradiance. He is also recognized for his leadership and contributions to the solar physics community, especially his untiring support for international research collaborations.

Neil Sheeley, 2009

The 2009 Hale Prize is awarded to Neil R. Sheeley, Jr., for his continuing outstanding contributions to our understanding of the solar magnetic field, coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections. His wide-ranging observational and theoretical work has laid the foundation for much current research in solar and heliospheric physics, and continues to have important applications in space weather prediction.

Neil Sheeley's Hale Prize lecture and animations

Marcia Neugebauer, 2010

The 2010 Hale Prize is awarded to Marcia Neugebauer, for her seminal contributions to the discovery of the solar wind and her extensive and ongoing contributions to solar-heliospheric physics.

Marcia Neugebauer's Hale Prize lecture

Henk Spruit, 2011

The 2011 Hale Prize is awarded to Henk Spruit, for insightful and pioneering work on the structure of magnetic flux tubes and sunspots and on their interaction with the flow of energy in the solar convection zone.

Henk Spruit's Hale Prize lecture

Don Reames, 2012

In recognition of his pioneering work on the composition and transport of Solar Energetic Particles, and for the key insights that firmly established the modern paradigm for SEP production, the 2012 Hale Prize is awarded to Don Reames of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Don Reames's Hale Prize Lecture

Dick Canfield, 2013

The 2013 Hale Prize is awarded to Richard Canfield for his pioneering work on dynamics and radiation in solar flares and on the origins and implications of magnetic helicity in active regions, as well as his role as a leader and mentor.

Dick Canfield's Hale Prize Lecture

Thomas Duvall, Jr., 2014

The 2014 Hale Prize is awarded to Thomas Duvall. Jr. for his invention and application of innovative helioseismic methods and the resulting ground-breaking discoveries within the solar interior, including internal sound-speed and rotation profiles, meridional circulation, wave perturbations in sunspots, and large scale convection properties.

George Doschek, 2015

The 2015 Hale Prize is awarded to George Doschek for his pioneering work in solar spectroscopy, in particular for his important insights into the interpretation and analysis of solar spectral observations, and his leadership as US principal investigator of the Yohkoh Bragg Crystal Spectrometer and Hinode Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer instruments.

Terry Forbes, 2016

The 2016 George Ellery Hale Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of solar astronomy is awarded to Terry G. Forbes (University of New Hampshire) for his significant contributions to the theory of magnetic reconnection, for his development of important new models of the physics of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and for his achievements mentoring students and junior scientists in the solar physics community.

Terry Forbes's Hale Prize Lecture

Last revised:
Last revised 2016 September 01 - J.B. Gurman
Contact: webmaster@spd.aas.org