The McClintock Letters, will receive the Meeting the Moment for Public Health Award, which recognizes an individual or organization that has been a “clear voice,” playing a key role in communicating important public health information to the public and rising to the challenge of the day. This award is part of the Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Awards generously supported by Johnson & Johnson.
Responding to threats to the federal scientific research infrastructure, the Cornell Advancing Science And Policy Club (ASAP) along with the Scientist Network for Advancing Policy (SNAP) organized The McClintock Letters Initiative to spur scientists to write letters about their work to more than 200 newspapers across 45 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. Scientists were encouraged to write opinion pieces for their hometown newspapers – sharing what their research is about, why it matters, and why science is worth investing in. The goal was to simultaneously publish the op-eds across the country the week of June 16th which is Nobel Prize-awarded geneticist Barbara McClintock’s birthday.
Emma and Isako are agricultural researchers and Ph.D. candidates at Cornell University. Beyond their study of fungal and oomycete plant pathogens, they serve as Co-Presidents of Cornell Advancing Science and Policy Club (ASAP) and are founding members of the Scientist Network for Advancing Policy (SNAP). Isako and Emma are both passionate about shaping science and science policy guided by principles of empathy and altruism, as evidenced by their leadership of the McClintock Letters initiative.