the radiation source was not of earthly origin. After learning about this work, a group of physicists from Princeton University interpreted it as background radiation of cosmic origin, but without reference to the two 1948 papers, one by Alpher, Bethe and Gamow (therefore sometimes called the α-β-γ paper) and the other by Alpher and Herman. The Big Bang model for the origin of the universe became widely accepted, and in 1978 a Nobel Prize was awarded to Bell scientists Penzias and Wilson for their detection of the cosmic background radiation. When recalling the culmination of this series of events, Herman remarked graciously, "You don't give recognition to the person; you give it to the work." Nevertheless, the team of Herman and Alpher were eventually recognized for their pioneering contribution. In 1993, the National Academy of Sciences announced that they would share the Henry Draper Medal, the oldest award of the Academy, for their contributions to astronomical physics. They were recognized "for their insight and skill in developing a physical model of the evolution of the universe and in predicting the existence of a microwave background radiation years before this radiation was serendipitously discovered; through this work they were participants in one of the major intellectual achievements of the 20th century." They also received the Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society, the John Price Wetherill Medal of the Franklin Institute, and the Georges Vanderlinden Prix of the Belgian Royal Academy. In 1956, Herman joined the General Motors Research Laboratory, as head of the basic science group, later renamed the theoretical physics department. He introduced science into the affairs of his employer by inventing a new science, traffic science. Drawing upon his background in physics, he first directed his attention to the description of the microscopic behavior of traffic: the detailed manner in which individual drivers avoid coinciding with each other in space and time, at least most of the time. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Herman joined with Elliott Waters Montroll and others in developing the car-following theory of traffic flow, a theory that has stood the test of time and is still the state of the art today. Shortly thereafter, Herman and Ilya Prigogine, a future Nobel Laureate, developed a theory of multilane traffic flow. For more than thirty-five years, Herman moved into diverse fields of traffic science, always leaving his characteristic mark of excellence. In recent