The Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Awards are given to recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students who present posters at meetings of the AAS. Awardees are honored with a Chambliss medal or, in the case of honorable mention, a certificate.

Rules

1. Only presentations submitted by the on-time abstract deadline are eligible for judging. Late abstracts are ineligible.
2. Participants must indicate during the abstract-submission process that they want their poster considered for the Chambliss student award.
3. Student presenters must be members of the AAS (if you're not already a member, you may join the Society between submitting your abstract and registering for the meeting).
4. To be eligible for an award, work featured on a poster must have been done while the presenter was an undergraduate or graduate student; high-school students are ineligible.
5. Undergraduate and graduate-student posters will be judged separately; winners will be chosen in each category.
6. Participants must be present at their posters at the scheduled judging times; if not, they will be automatically disqualified.

Judging

1. Eligible submissions will be assigned to poster sessions on the first, second, or third day of the meeting so that winners can be announced on the fourth (final) day. Like all AAS presenters, students will be informed in advance when their posters are scheduled.
2. Advanced graduate students who have finished their coursework and/or who have passed their qualifying exams and/or who are working on their dissertation research are eligible (and encouraged!) to judge undergraduate entries — but not if they have also entered a poster into the graduate-student Chambliss competition.
3. Judges will be drawn from the broad AAS membership, not just those who work in a matching subject area; students should not expect judges to be experts on their topic.
4. Judges may view student posters whenever they wish throughout the day, and students are encouraged to spend as much time at their posters as possible. Students must be at their posters during the morning break (usually 9:30 to 10:00 a.m.) and again during the afternoon poster session (usually 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.), as those are the times when judges will be looking to speak with students about their research.
5. Judges may choose whether to identify themselves as such when evaluating posters (i.e., they may choose to remain anonymous). Judges may also choose whether to contact the students whose posters they are judging to schedule appointments to meet at their posters.
6. Judges' score sheets will not be shared with other judges or with students. AAS staff will tally judges' scores and choose student winners in both the undergraduate and graduate-student categories.
7. Judging criteria for posters are based on presentation and content, weighted so that content is 60% of the score, as follows:

Content

• The student conveyed why he/she is working on this particular topic or area. The message is clear and reflects a strong conceptual understanding of the problem at hand.
• The student clearly described what he/she did, i.e., how he/she conducted the research.
• The student clearly conveyed the results of the research and demonstrated understanding of the implications of his/her work.

Presentation

• The presentation followed a logical flow, e.g., title, introduction, explanation of work, summary and/or conclusion, and references.
• The presenter was well practiced and professional.
• Presenter was clear, articulate, and concise. Language was appropriate for the presenter's level of education/expertise.

Deadline

The deadline for entering a poster in the Chambliss student-award competition is the same as the meeting's on-time abstract deadline, which is usually around October 1st for winter meetings and around March 1st for summer meetings (check the appropriate meeting page); late papers are not eligible.

Award

The award winners will be announced at the meeting, in the AAS Newsletter, and on the AAS Facebook page.

Awardees are honored with a gold-plated bronze Chambliss medal; runners-up, if any, receive a certificate of honorable mention.