The Chandra Education and Public Outreach group has received the 2007 Pirelli International award for physics. The Pirelli award, established in 1996, is the world’s first Internet multimedia award aimed at the diffusion of scientific and technological culture worldwide.
Three members of the Chandra group, Kimberly Kowal Arcand, April Hobart, and Megan Watzke, along with Chandra scientist Martin Elvis, received the award in a ceremony in Rome, Italy, on May 11, 2007. Chandra was selected for the first of its series of video podcasts (also known as “vodcasts”) that illustrate the mission and results of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. In orbit since July 1999, Chandra studies X-rays coming from high-energy phenomena across the universe. According to the Pirelli jury, the motivation for selecting Chandra was for “the innovative use of new generation multimedia tools toward broadening science communication to the wider public.”
The Chandra podcasts are produced once a month and are available at http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/podcasts/ as well as at many popular podcast sources. Along with physics, the categories in the Pirelli award are chemistry, mathematics, life sciences, and information and computer technology. More information about the Pirelli award can be found at http://www.pirelliaward.com/index.html
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.
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