JESSIE STEVENSON KOVALENKO MEDAL a medal and a prize of $25,000 awarded every three years for important contributions to the medical sciences goes to JEFFREY M. FRIEDMAN, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Marilyn M. Simpson Professor, laboratory of molecular genetics, Rockefeller University, New York City, "for the discovery of leptin and its role in the regulation of appetite, energy expenditure, and the molecular mechanisms underlying obesity." The award was established by a gift of Michael S. Kovalenko in memory of his wife, Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko, and has been presented since 1952.

RICHARD LOUNSBERY AWARD a medal and a prize of $50,000 awarded to French and American scientists in alternate years for extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine goes to XIAODONG WANG, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science, department of biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, "for pioneering biochemical studies on apoptosis, which have elucidated a molecular pathway leading into and out of the mitochondrion and to the nucleus." The award was established by Vera Lounsbery in memory of her husband and has been presented since 1979.

NAS AWARD IN CHEMICAL SCIENCES a medal and prize of $15,000 awarded annually for innovative research in the chemical sciences that, in the broadest sense, contributes to the better understanding of the natural sciences and
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