The sidney prize is a monthly award for outstanding investigative journalism. It is open to all journalists in the U.S and Canada who have produced journalism that exposes social injustices. The winner is chosen by a panel of judges, including former winners. The prize is a great way to promote journalism that can make a difference.
A few months before his death, Sid was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. His family and his colleagues were stunned by the diagnosis, and he was taken to hospice care. He died on August 12, 2009. The prize is given in his name by his family and friends. The prize committee is composed of former winners of the prize and a few of his close associates.
During his lifetime, Sid had many serendipitous choices that endowed him with expertise that paid off later in life. For example, he majored in physics at MIT and wrote a senior thesis on nuclear physics. But in his last semester he took an introductory course in molecular biology, and that redirected his career. He began work on DNA replication with Leonard Lerman, which led to his pioneering work on bacteriophage T4 DNA and, ultimately, the discovery of RNA as the catalytic component of RNase P.
Sidney Thomas, a member of the department from 1961 to 1985, is a distinguished scholar who was deeply committed to humanistic scholarship in art history. In addition to his own work, he edited two benchmark publications in the field: The Nature of Art (with John Gassner, 1964) and Images of Man (with Thomas Adler, 1972). The prize is named after him to honor his dedication to this field of study.
The Sydney peace prize is awarded each year by the Sydney Peace Foundation to a person or organization who has promoted “peace with justice”, human rights and non-violence. This year, it was won by the Black Lives Matter movement, founded in the United States by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi following the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. The prize is worth AUD$10,000. The winner is honoured at the Sydney Peace Prize Ceremony in November each year. It is funded by a bequest from the Lucy Firth Foundation. The prize is not open to members of the public. This is to prevent conflicts of interest. However, the nominees may be of any nationality. The nomination process is online. The winner is announced at a dinner in Sydney. This year’s event was held on Thursday, 27 November at the Sydney Town Hall. The winner was congratulated by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who praised the activists for “making a real contribution to our national debate.” The audience also heard from an advocate of the movement and a victim of violent crime. The audience then participated in a discussion on the importance of the peace prize and its impact on society. The event was filmed for the ABC and is available online.