The Sidney Prize was established in 2004 by New York Times columnist David Brooks to honor the work of writers who create long-form essays about politics and culture. The prize is named after philosopher and political theorist Sidney Hook. It is awarded annually for works that exhibit the highest standard of scholarship, analysis, and commentary in contemporary American politics and society. The winner receives a $10,000 cash prize, and the essay is published in Overland magazine.

The 2023 winner of the Sidney Prize is Loren Davidson, MD, for her article, “Epidemiology and History of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,” which appeared in the journal Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The SS Sidney Hook Memorial Award is presented in memory of a distinguished Phi Beta Kappa member who was committed to the ideals of liberal education. This award is given each year to a scholar who has demonstrated national distinction in scholarship, undergraduate teaching, and leadership in advancing the cause of liberal education. The award consists of an honorarium and a plaque. The winner is chosen by a committee of scholars from the Society’s member schools.

In the 1960s, Sidney Nagel ’51 became fascinated with molecular biology and abandoned his original plans to go into nuclear physics to study this new field. He wrote a senior thesis on nuclear physics, but in his final semester at MIT he took a course in molecular biology with Leonard Lerman. It was then that he realized what his true calling was. He worked with Lerman on bacteriophage T4 DNA replication for the remainder of his graduate studies and received a doctorate in biophysics in 1967.

After graduation, Nagel was hired as a research assistant by a professor at the University of California, Berkeley to work on molecular biology. Sidney was a highly motivated student, and he quickly began contributing ideas to his mentor’s experiments. After a few years, Nagel was promoted to senior research scientist and began to supervise other students. This allowed him to take on larger projects with greater independence.

One of his most significant contributions was in the area of RNA-mediated gene expression. He showed that RNA could carry information, like a gene, and also catalyze chemical reactions, much as proteins do. This work overturned a common dogma that RNA molecules could either carry information or catalyze a reaction, but not both. For this work, he shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Arthur C. Cope and Robert W. Evans.

In The Sims 4, Sidney Price is a pre-made Sim that lives in Copperdale, the world that shipped with The Sims 4: High School Years expansion pack. He lives with his parents Janae and Marcel Price, his siblings Savannah Price and Jayden Price, and roommate Kevin Puri. He has both men and women as his Romance and Mess Around preferences, indicating that he is bisexual. In the game trailers, renders, and promotional screenshots, he is shown to have a crush on Liam Beckett.