Lifetime Achievement Award: Vicki Cobb
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held its annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. Vicki Cobb is the winner of the prize’s Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 85 nonfiction books for children. Her earlier careers as a laboratory researcher and science teacher inspired her work on books such as Science Experiments You Can Eat and Light Action! Amazing Experiments in Optics.
Often referred to as the “Julia Child of hands-on science,” Cobb said her books allow her “to recreate the joy of learning I experienced in elementary school for myself, forever.” With several other nonfiction children’s authors, she started the iNK Think Tank, which helps connect nonfiction authors and their books with K-12 science teachers and national science and mathematics standards curricula.
The 2012 finalists and winners were selected by a group of judges made up of librarians, scientists, and science literacy experts. The judges selected 12 finalists out of 178 books up for consideration. Winners received $1500 and a plaque recognizing their achievement at the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.#
