Professor Michal Lipson will receive the 2019 Comstock Prize in Physics. Lipson’s pioneering research established the groundwork for silicon photonics, a growing field in which she remains a pioneer and leader. The technology, which uses optical rays to transfer data among computer chips, is now considered to be one of the most promising directions for solving major bottlenecks in microelectronics.

CNN: "I'm a climate scientist, but I didn't work on the latest National Climate Assessment. I wasn't asked to do so, in fact. But if I had been, I would have thought hard before agreeing to participate, because the work is largely thankless. The scientists who put long hours, days, and years into assessments like the NCA, those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others do so on a volunteer basis. The time comes out of their other projects, reducing their output -- meaning fewer papers published on their own research, fewer proposals for grant funding to sustain their research groups, less time put into anything that benefits their careers directly. To what end?"