The Society for Amateur Scientists has awarded its highest honor, the Benjamin Franklin Citizen Scientist Prize Award, to Forrest M. Mims III of the Geronimo Creek Observatory in Seguin, Texas .

The annual award recognizes extraordinary scientific achievement amongst those for whom science is a passion, but not necessarily a vocation. Awardees must have distinguished themselves in the world of science. They must have made important discoveries and published their results in reputable research journals. And they must have done it all without ever having earned an advanced degree. Winners are selected by a panel of distinguished professional scientists that often includes Nobel laureates. Past winners include famed dinosaur hunter Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, and renowned amateur astronomer David Levy of the Jarnac Observatory in Vail, Arizona.

"Mims is definitely one of the world's greatest citizen scientists," says Dr. Shawn Carlson, Founder and Executive Director of the Society. "Although he majored in government in college, today Mims is a highly respected atmospheric scientist. NASA routinely sends him to South America to monitor the environmental effects of biomass burning of the rain forests. He has published numerous papers and letters in some of the world's most prestigious and exclusive scientific journals. And he has embarrassed the professions more than once by making critical discoveries that they have overlooked."

In 1990, for instance, using an inexpensive hand-held instrument that he invented so he could monitor the amount of ozone in the earth's stratosphere from his own backyard, Mims discovered a serious flaw in a similar instrument costing thousands of times more that NASA had installed inside an orbiting satellite. "They were pretty reluctant to believe it at first," Mims recalls, "but I eventually managed to convince them." Since then his dogged determination to contribute to science and his daily observations of ozone, water vapor, haze and sundry contaminants in the atmosphere have enabled him to find problems in other satellite instruments "Six so far," he claims, and to make additional discoveries that have won Mims the respect of professional scientists around the world.

"But Mims didn't just win this award for his scientific research," Carlson is quick to add. "The Awards Committee also recognized him for his extraordinary contributions to teaching science to the next generation." Mims has written over fifty books and pamphlets, many for Radio Shack, that have taught electronics to millions of readers. Moreover, "Mims has an extraordinary genius for inventing inexpensive ways of making important environmental measurements," says Carlson. "His methods are being used in classrooms around the world to enable school kids to become citizen scientists themselves and learn about their environment first hand."

"This is indeed a great honor," says Mims, who also edits the Society's magazine, The Citizen Scientist. "I only hope it encourages other people out there to follow their own passion to do science and make discoveries."