The Woodson recently received a wonderful gift from Professor Ben Thomson of Edinburgh. It came in this little box embossed with the name of his grandfather, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1937:

Inside was something I’d never seen before, a Rice Semicentennial Medal of Honor. It was awarded in an evening ceremony in October, 1962 and it’s a real beauty:

I’m reasonably sure that Professor Thomson is second from the right (next to Riki Kobayashi ’44) in this photograph of the ceremony where the medals were presented. Someone carefully coded each picture of this event–this one is 15-4–but the key was lost long ago. That’s life in the archives.

Professor Thomson also delivered a short address during the week of festivities entitled “Fifty Years of Physics and Their Consequences.” I read it this afternoon and can attest that it is worth your time. Here’s a link to a pdf of that talk: Thomson talk

Bonus: The always helpful Tommy Lavergne cleaned up the picture of RMC construction from last Thursday. It’s a major improvement.