Last Tuesday, more than two years after the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy should have chosen the eight winners of the 2005 National Medal of Science, President George W. Bush announced that Emeritus Psychology Prof. Gordon Bower and Statistics Prof. Bradley Efron Ph.D. ‘64 had won the nation’s most prestigious honor for scientific contribution.

Since its establishment in 1959, 34 Stanford scholars — including Bower and Efron — have won the award, which recognizes researchers who have contributed to the physical, mathematical, biological, engineering, social and behavioral sciences.

Efron, who focused his career on theoretical and applied statistics, was recognized for his invention of the bootstrap method, along with his contributions to nonlinear statistical problems, medicine, astronomy and physics. In addition to winning the 1983 MacArthur Prize, Efron also held positions as president of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” Efron said of the phone call he received two weeks ago from the Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Marburger Ph.D. ‘67, telling him that he had won the award. “Statisticians don’t win many awards.”

Both Efron and Bower were asked to keep their awards secret until the president made an official announcement last week. The recipients were told that the award’s tardiness was due to scheduling difficulties with the president, and that the Office of Science and Technology Policy has a backlog of annual awards.

Bower, who was ranked the 42nd most eminent psychologist of the 20th century by the “Review of General Psychology,” won the award for his research in cognitive and mathematical psychology, and for his studies on analysis and reasoning. Bower was chair of the psychology department from 1978 to 1982 and associate dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences from 1983 to 1986.

“My wife will accompany me,” Bower said in reference to the July ceremony that will be held at the White House. “It’s the least I can do for all those years of being my companion and making my life easy to be a scholar and scientist.”