Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science


The Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science is given annually by the Phi Beta Kappa Society to authors of significant books in the fields of science and mathematics. The award was first given in 1959 to anthropologist Loren Eiseley.

Award winners

Source:
YearBookAuthorSubject
2019Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the EarthAdam Frank
2018Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst Robert SapolskyBiology
2017The Gene: An intimate historySiddhartha MukherjeeBiology
2016The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human HistoryThor HansenBiology
2015Animal Weapons: The Evolution of BattleBiology
2014Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant SwabianA. Douglas StoneQuantum Physics
2013The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail—but Some Don'tStatistics
2012The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change, Richard Alley, Wallace Broecker, and George DentonGlobal warming
2011Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st CenturyGlobal warming
2010Complexity: A Guided TourComplexity
2009The Art and Politics of ScienceHistory of science
2008Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human BodyBiology
2007The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of EvolutionBiology
2006Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of ClimateClimatology
2005The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes and HumansBiology
2004Isaac NewtonPhysics
2003Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on EarthBiology
2002A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution & Abrupt Climate ChangeClimatology
2001The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our FutureClimatology
2000Cradle of Life: The Discovery of the Earth's Earliest FossilsPaleontology
1999The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate TheoryCosmology
1998Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx & The Evolution of Bird FlightPaleontology
1997Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human SocietiesSociology
1996Where Does the Weirdness Go? Why Quantum Mechanics is Strange, But Not as Strange as You ThinkPhysics
1995Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration, Bert HölldoblerBiology
1994Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous LegacyPhysics
1993Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population TaboosEcology
1992One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary ThoughtBiology
1991Envisioning InformationStatistics
1990Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryBiology
1989The How and the Why: An Essay on the Origins and Development of Physical TheoryPhysics
1988Infinite in All DirectionsCosmology
1987Chemicals and Society: A Guide to the New Chemical AgeChemistry
1986The Mystery of CometsAstronomy
1985The Scientific Reinterpretation of FormScience
1984Frozen Star: Of Pulsars, Black Holes and the Fate of StarsAstronomy
1983Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes: Further Reflections in Natural HistoryBiology
1982Emerging Cosmology: ConvergenceCosmology
1981Cosmic Dawn: The Origins of Matter and LifeCosmology
1980The Image of Eternity: Roots of Time in the Physical WorldPhysics
1979Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery and Katherine Palmer ImbrieClimatology
1978Mechanics of the MindMedicine
1977Space colonization
1976Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake BayBiology
1975The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient WorldMedicine
1974Darwin on Man: A Psychological Study of Scientific Creativity, Paul H. BarrettBiology
1973The Computer from Pascal to von NeumannComputation
1972The Closing Circle: Nature, Man and TechnologySociology
1971Vitamin C and the Common ColdMedicine
1970The Life and Death of a Salt MarshEcology
1969Antibodies and ImmunityMedicine
1968Great waters: A Voyage of Natural History to Study Whales, Plankton, and the Waters of the Southern OceanBiology
1967Modern GeneticsBiology
1966Man AdaptingMedicine
1965Bird MigrationBiology
1964The Origin of AdaptationsBiology
1963The Unseen WorldBiology
1962The World of IceClimatology
1961Communication Among Social BeesBiology
1960The Forest and the SeaEcology
1959Darwin’s Century: Evolution and the Men Who Discovered ItBiology