The plaudits continue for IRG 1 Leader Patrick McCray's book, The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future. It has been selected as the winner of the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize, named in honor of the longtime director of Science Service and his wife. Established in 1985 through a long-term pledge from Miles and Audrey Davis, the prize consists of $1000 and a certificate.

The prize honors books in the history of science directed to a wide public (including undergraduate instruction). The book must be published in English during a period of three calendar years immediately preceding the year of competition (books eligible for 2007 were published in 2004, 2005, or 2006).They should be introductory in assuming no previous knowledge of the subject and in being directed to audiences of beginning students and general readers. They should introduce an entire field, a chronological period, a national tradition, or the work of a noteworthy individual. Multi-authored or edited books are eligible, whereas unrevised reprints of previously published works are not.

The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future has previously been awarded the 2012 Eugene E. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature. The annual Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Awards, named for NASA’s first Historian, recognize outstanding books which advance public understanding of astronautics through originality, scholarship and readability.