Dr. Koonin was interviewed by Barry Honig of Columbia University for our Creative Conversations series. They discuss science and the university, at a time when political pressures are changing the way science is done, for our series of interviews with 2023 Barry Prize winners.
The prize citation for Dr. Koonin’s Barry Prize reads:
In a career spanning the academy, business and government, Steven Koonin has mobilized an extensive knowledge of theoretical physics across nuclear astrophysics, theoretical nuclear physics, computational and many-body physics to build solutions to real-world problems. With passions ranging from human flourishing in New York City to the natural environment of our globe, he has fearlessly championed the integrity and independence of natural science that are so crucial to its intellectual and practical success. The Academy honors Dr. Koonin’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s cultivation of scientific progress for the improvement of our world.
Steven E. Koonin, Edward Teller Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, has served as the Department of Energy’s under secretary for science, as chief scientist for BP, as professor and provost at Caltech, and professor at New York University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a governor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and a trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses. He wrote the recent bestseller Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.
October 2026
The awarding of the Barry Prize to Dr. Koonin at our 2023 ceremony at the Library of Congress:
Dr. Koonin was interviewed by Barry Honig of Columbia University for our Creative Conversations series. They discuss science and the university, at a time when political pressures are changing the way science is done, for our series of interviews with 2023 Barry Prize winners.
The prize citation for Dr. Koonin’s Barry Prize reads:
In a career spanning the academy, business and government, Steven Koonin has mobilized an extensive knowledge of theoretical physics across nuclear astrophysics, theoretical nuclear physics, computational and many-body physics to build solutions to real-world problems. With passions ranging from human flourishing in New York City to the natural environment of our globe, he has fearlessly championed the integrity and independence of natural science that are so crucial to its intellectual and practical success. The Academy honors Dr. Koonin’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s cultivation of scientific progress for the improvement of our world.
Steven E. Koonin, Edward Teller Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, has served as the Department of Energy’s under secretary for science, as chief scientist for BP, as professor and provost at Caltech, and professor at New York University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a governor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and a trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses. He wrote the recent bestseller Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.
October 2026
The awarding of the Barry Prize to Dr. Koonin at our 2023 ceremony at the Library of Congress: