Just weeks after being named a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the leader of the CNS's Interdisciplinary Group 1, W. Patrick McCray, won the 2012 Eugene E. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature for his book, The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future (Princeton University Press, 2013). According to the American Astronautical Society which grants the prize, "The annual Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Awards, named for NASA’s first Historian, recognize outstanding books that advance public understanding of astronautics. They reward originality, scholarship and readability."

McCray's election to the American Physical Society was for "outstanding scholarship on the history of modern physical sciences that explores relations between experts, amateurs, and enthusiasts, and for his service to the scholarly community, including institution-building and sustained public outreach."