SEPP Fred Seitz Award

Frederick Seitz
Memorial Award
Established in 2014.

The Frederick Seitz Memorial Award was created to recognize the unsung heroes of the climate wars. It rewards scholars for having the courage to “swim against the tide” of conventional thinking despite the financial and professional disincentives. It seeks to make up, in some small way, for the denial of recognition, promotions, and honors by a politicized and increasingly bureaucratized academy. The award is presented every year to an individual who has a strong sense of commitment to truth and integrity in science.

Frederick Seitz, 1975
(Photograph by Yousuf Karsh)

The Award recipient is selected by a nominating committee originally created by Dr. Fred Singer to honor his late friend and to recognize the accomplishments of his fellow scientists. Dr. William Happer, professor of physics at Princeton University, Dr. Willie H. Soon, an astrophysicist, and all past winners have agreed to serve on the committee.

Dr. Frederick Seitz epitomized the courage, independence of thought, and commitment to truth and integrity in science that all scientists should aspire to. He made major scientific contributions in his field of specialty, solid state physics, but also devoted much of his life to serving as an ambassador and advocate for science. Among his many titles, he was president of Rockefeller University (1968-1978), president of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1962–1969), president of the American Physical Society, founder of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, founder of the George C. Marshall Institute, and past chairman of the Science and Environmental Policy Project.

Frederick Seitz Memorial Awardees

2022	We will be announcing the 2022 winner at the Heartland Institute Conference in Orlando, FL, in February, 2023.

2021	No award.

2020	David R. Legates, Ph.D
Link to David Legates accepting Frederick Seitz Memorial Award David R. Legates, Ph.D., was professor of climatology in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware and an adjunct professor in the university’s Department of Applied Economics & Statistics. He also served in the Trump administration, and outlined at The Heartland Institute's 14th International Conference on Climate Change how his attempts to apply actual science and data to climate policy was thwarted at every turn. (from The Heartland Institute) Link to Speakers at the 14th International Conference on Climate Change Address the Woeful State of Climate Science At The Heartland Institute’s 14th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-14) in Las Vegas, Nevada researchers in the fields of climate science, energy economics, and public policy presented their current research concerning climate change and the likely effects of policies proposed to prevent it. Three keynote speakers, David Legates, Ph.D., Patrick Michaels, Ph.D., and William Happer, Ph.D., discussed the inaccurate portrayal of the current state of the climate by many scientists, and the dangers of policies proposed to restrict carbon dioxide emissions to prevent climate change. (from The Heartland Institute)

2019	Richard Lindzen
Link to Richard S. Lindzen Climate Change Awards Richard S. Lindzen was a distinguished senior fellow at The Heartland Institute. He is also emeritus professor of meteorology at MIT, where he was the Alfred P. Sloan Professor, beginning in 1983. Prior to that he was the Robert P. Burden Professor of Dynamic Meteorology at Harvard University. (from Climate Change Awards) Link to TWTW Award Announcement ICCC-13: The Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change, organized by The Heartland Institute, will occur on July 25 at the Trump International Hotel, at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. The full day schedule features many speakers who reject groupthink and think for themselves. SEPP will be honored to present its 2019 Fredrick Seitz Memorial Award for Exceptional Courage in the Quest for Knowledge to Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P Sloan Professor, Emeritus, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT.
With Dr. Richard Lindzen and Dr. Benny Peiser. Dr. Lindzen is Prof. Emeritus of meteorology at MIT, a famous atmospheric physicist. He was awarded last night, Frederick Seitz Memorial Award, given by the Science and Environment Policy Project (SEPP) headed by Ken Haapala. Benny is the Director of the Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) in London. (from Heartland ICCC-13 ) More links and pictures from Heartland Conference

2018	Roy Spencer
Link: Roy Spencer Gets Frederick Seitz Memorial Award - America First Energy Conference 2018 Link to TWTW Award Announcement Fredrick Seitz Memorial Award: During the Heartland Conference, Ken Haapala presented the Fredrick Seitz Memorial Award to Roy Spencer for Exceptional Courage in the Quest for Knowledge. When Roy Spencer and John Christy published the method for calculating temperature trends for the bulk atmosphere from satellite data, they were first honored then shunned. The data, hard evidence, do not support the assertions in the Charney Report, the IPCC, the US Global Change Research Program, etc., that greenhouse gases are causing a dangerous warming of the atmosphere. (from Aug 11, 2018 TWTW)

2017	Willie Soon
SEPP Award Letter to Willie Soon Smithonian Profiles for Willie Soon Bio and Account of Work by Willie Soon (photo credit: Heartland Institute) In 2003, Dr. Soon received the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) Award in official recognition of work performance reflecting a high standard of accomplishment. In 2004, Soon received the Petr Beckmann award for courage and achievement in defense of scientific truth and freedom from the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. In 2014, Dr. Soon received the Courage in Defense of Science Award from the George Marshall Institute. In 2017 he received the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award from the Science and Environmental Policy Project.

2016	John Christy
Link to TWTW Award Announcement The Frederick Seitz Memorial Award: At the 34th Annual Meeting of the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP), SEPP Chairman Fred Singer presented the annual Frederick Seitz Memorial Award to John Christy for his outstanding contributions to empirical science. No stranger to the readers of TWTW, Dr. Christy is the Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center, part of the National Space Science & Technology Center, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the State Climatologist for Alabama. The National Space Science & Technology Center is funded by both NASA and the National Weather Service (NOAA). (from Jul 16, 2016 TWTW) Link: Christy donating award to job-training charity HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Aug. 2, 2016) — John Christy, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, has donated a $10,000 award to a local charity that helps women enter the job market. Christy recently received the Science & Environmental Policy Project’s Frederick Seitz Memorial Award, recognizing important contributions to the advancement of our understanding of Earth’s environment. Dr. S. Fred Singer, founder of SEPP, was instrumental in establishing the award. Christy donated the award to the Christian Women’s Job Corps of Madison County (CWJC), an organization his late wife, Babs, helped create. Christy said the award honors those who focus on observational data even though they may run counter to popular ideas. “This recognizes a basic principle in science,” he said. “In a sense, it’s an award for someone who lets observations and data tell us about climate change, and making that known in many public venues.” Christy said CWJC — a nonprofit organization dedicated to equipping women of all faiths with skills to improve their lives — is important to him, as it was to his late wife.

2015	William Happer
The Heartland Institute announces award. Award Winner Happer Spreads Climate Wisdom Through Humor William Happer, a professor at Princeton University, received the 2015 Frederick Seitz Memorial Award from presenter S. Fred Singer of the Science and Environmental Policy Project at the Tenth International Conference on Climate Change keynote dinner. Happer’s presentation dropped the audience down the rabbit hole with his speech “Alice in Climateland,” a satirical parallel to Lewis Carroll’s fantasy novel. Video Link: William Happer, Ph.D., Keynote 3, ICCC10 Link to TWTW Award Announcement Alice in Climateland: A high point in the conference for SEPP came during Thursday’s dinner when SEPP Chairman S. Fred Singer introduced Professor Will Happer, the recipient of the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award. Seitz, past Chairman of SEPP, was a distinguished solid-state physicist and long-term president of the US National Academy of Sciences, greatly expanded the role and influence of that group. Seitz questioned the ever expanding assertions of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), often made without physical evidence, that humanity, particularly emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), was primarily responsible for 20th century temperature increases. Seitz challenged the processes used by the IPCC, calling the Second Assessment Report [1996] of the IPCC the worst abuse of the peer-review process he has observed in 60 years of science. (from Jun 13, 2015 TWTW)

2014	Sherwood Idso
Link: Prominent Global Warming Skeptic Honored with Frederick Seitz Memorial Award Dr. Idso is the first recipient of the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award, an annual award established by former colleagues of one of the world’s best known and most highly respected scientists. Seitz was deeply skeptical of claims that “global warming” is either man-made or dangerous. The award will be presented by atmospheric scientist Dr. S. Fred Singer of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP). Link to TWTW Award Announcement Fred Singer presented the Fredrick Seitz Memorial Award to Sherwood Idso for his pioneering work on the enormous benefits of enhanced atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) for humanity and the environment. Virtually all food crops and most other plants grow better in an atmosphere richer in carbon dioxide than today’s atmosphere. As human emissions increase atmospheric carbon dioxide, we can look forward to a world more bountiful than the one today and a more robust environment in general. (from Jul 12, 2014 TWTW)