Socrates Award

About the Socrates Award

The Socrates Award recognizes the Poison of the Year and is awarded by a tally of votes from the students taking the course Principles of Environmental Toxicology.  The Socrates Award Lecture is an in-depth, critical analysis of the sources, pathways, receptors and controls for this agent of real or purported consequences on human health or the environment. 

Socrates, the Greek philosopher, believed in the superiority of rational argument over writing and that all vice is the result of ignorance. He was convicted of crimes against the state and executed in 399 BC by drinking poison Hemlock. Read about Socrates.

Criteria for the award are thus:

1. The poison/toxin/contaminant must be a specific chemical or substance or closely related group of substances.
2. The substance can have direct or indirect activity.
3. The poison/toxin/contaminant must have been in the media arena in the past year.
4. The poison/toxin/contaminant can present real, perceived or "hyped" risk to the general public or the environment.
5. The issues surrounding the substance and its impact on human health and the environment would have inspired Socrates in vigorous debate!
    

"I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live."
- Socrates

Socrates Award Receipts of the Past