By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

One former and two present Harvard professors have won the highest award given to scientists by the U.S. government. William Estes, Daniel and Amy Starch Professor of Psychology Emeritus, and Shing-Tung Yau, professor of mathematics, both have received the 1997 National Medal of Science, President Clinton announced yesterday. A total of nine medals were awarded.

James Watson, who was on the faculty from 1955 to 1976, also won a Medal. He shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1962 for discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.

Estes, who has been a professor at Harvard since 1979, won for a lifetime of contributions to how people learn. His Medal citation acknowledges "his fundamental theories of cognition and learning that transformed the field of experimental psychology. His pioneering methods of quantitative modeling and an insistence on rigor and precision established the standard for modern psychological science."

Yau, who came to Harvard in 1987, was cited for "profound contributions to mathematics that have had a great impact on fields as diverse as topology, algebraic geometry, general relativity, and string theory. His work insightfully combines two different mathematical approaches and has resulted in the solution of several longstanding and important problems in mathematics."

A Great Surprise

"I was terribly surprised by the news," Estes said in a telephone interview. "It's very unusual for a psychologist to get this award. I was at a meeting, and when my wife came to get me out, I thought she was going to tell me that the house had burned down."

Yau could not be reached for comment, but the National Medal of Science can be added to his long list of other prizes. He won a MacArthur "genius" award in 1985 and the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics, in 1982. When he became a MacArthur Fellow, he noted that "basically, I work in geometry; also on nonlinear equations; also a little bit on mathematical physics. These are all related in many ways."

Born in Swatow, China, in 1949, Yau fled the country with his family after the communist takeover in 1949. He studied mathematics in high school in Hong Kong and credits his math teacher and his father, an economist, for his lifelong interest in the subject.

In 1971, at age 22, Yau earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at Berkeley and was recognized as California Scientist of the Year in 1979.

Yau did research and taught at Stanford University, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the University of Texas, and the University of California, San Diego. When he came to Harvard, Arthur Jaffe, now Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science, said that, "Yau's versatility makes him a Renaissance mathematician."

Estes received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1943. He taught and did research at Indiana University, Stanford, and Rockefeller University in New York.

In 1962, he received the Distinguished Research Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association. His other honors include the 1963 Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists. He authored several books, edited numerous publications, and served on many national commissions and panels.

Estes said he is most proud of being "a leading figure in bringing mathematical methods into psychological research. A significant part of my research in this area was done at Harvard."