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Interim Laboratory Director Pete Nanos, center, with Los Alamos Medal Award recipients Louis Rosen, left, and George Cowan. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs

Cowan, Rosen awarded the Los Alamos Medal

Noting that science is the value the Laboratory brings to the nation, Interim Director Pete Nanos called the scientific contributions of retired staff members George Cowan and Louis Rosen "humbling."

Before an audience of their peers and invited guests in the Administration Building Auditorium, Nanos on Monday presented Cowan and Rosen the Los Alamos Medals in a ceremony that launched six months of celebratory events marking the Laboratory's 60th anniversary.

Cowan was honored for his pioneering work in radiochemical techniques and for his measurements of fundamental physical properties of neutrons from nuclear explosions.

He first came to Los Alamos in 1945. Of the momentous work done on the Manhattan Project at the time, he said, "It takes an overwhelming threat to demonstrate what people can achieve in the face of one or two enemy powers."

But today, he said, an overwhelming threat of a different type exists. "The big job facing the nation and the Lab is to find a long-term solution to the potential of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of not one or two, but so many people."

A senior laboratory fellow, Cowan is a recipient of the E.O. Lawrence Award and the Fermi Award. Among other affiliations, he is also a founder and a past president of the Santa Fe Institute.

Nanos recognized Rosen for his leadership in conceiving and creating a premier research facility, the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) at Technical Area 53. Called the "Flagship" of American nuclear physics when it opened in 1972, LAMPF paved the way for today's high-intensity pulsed proton source at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE).

Rosen began his career at the Lab in 1944. From the 1960s through the 1980s, he led the diversification of the institution into world-class, nuclear-physics status.

"I believe it's a mistake to relegate first class basic research to second-class status, even if practical research to solve a current problem is a top priority," Rosen commented to the audience about his philosophy of research.

Known as a scientific "ambassador," Rosen worked to break down barriers to scientific exchange between foreign and U.S. scientists during the Cold War.

A senior fellow emeritus of the Laboratory, he also is a recipient of the E.O. Lawrence Award.

--Bill Dupuy

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