Superconducting Spectrometer, and as Principal Investigator on the Cosmic Ray
Energetics and Mass Experiment (CREAM), both in its initial balloon-launched
configuration and in its second-generation ISS-CREAM experiment sent aboard
the International Space Station in 2017. In 2019 NASA attempted to replace her
as PI for ISS-CREAM, but after a majority of the project’s scientists supported her
by rejecting NASA’s chosen successor, the experiment was discontinued.
Seo was president of the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association,
Korean-American Women in Science and Engineering and Association of Korean
Physicists in America. She became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in
2010 in recognition of her work on CREAM.
George F. Smoot
He has been at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory since 1970. He is Chairman of the “Physics of the Universe”
Endowment Fund of the Paris Center for Cosmological Physics. He is a member
of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical
Society. Although best known for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer
(COBE) satellite, he spent many years prior to that sending instruments aloft on
stratospheric balloons. These flights all produced scientific results that affected
the designs of the COBE instruments. Smoot has been honored by universities
worldwide with doctorates and professorships. He was also the recipient of the
following awards:
• 1991 The Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA.
• 1995 The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of
Energy.
• 2003 The Einstein Medal from Albert Einstein Society.
• 2006 The Gruber Prize in Cosmology.
• 2006 The Daniel Chalonge Medal from the International School of
Astrophysics.
Appendix 2: Scientists and Engineers in Ballooning 295
Energetics and Mass Experiment (CREAM), both in its initial balloon-launched
configuration and in its second-generation ISS-CREAM experiment sent aboard
the International Space Station in 2017. In 2019 NASA attempted to replace her
as PI for ISS-CREAM, but after a majority of the project’s scientists supported her
by rejecting NASA’s chosen successor, the experiment was discontinued.
Seo was president of the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association,
Korean-American Women in Science and Engineering and Association of Korean
Physicists in America. She became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in
2010 in recognition of her work on CREAM.
George F. Smoot
He has been at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory since 1970. He is Chairman of the “Physics of the Universe”
Endowment Fund of the Paris Center for Cosmological Physics. He is a member
of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical
Society. Although best known for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer
(COBE) satellite, he spent many years prior to that sending instruments aloft on
stratospheric balloons. These flights all produced scientific results that affected
the designs of the COBE instruments. Smoot has been honored by universities
worldwide with doctorates and professorships. He was also the recipient of the
following awards:
• 1991 The Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA.
• 1995 The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of
Energy.
• 2003 The Einstein Medal from Albert Einstein Society.
• 2006 The Gruber Prize in Cosmology.
• 2006 The Daniel Chalonge Medal from the International School of
Astrophysics.
Appendix 2: Scientists and Engineers in Ballooning 295