Impacted Members/Scientists: Request a membership waiver, seek meeting support, and other resources. Learn more. For the latest public policy updates, please visit this page.
Duties of Prize Committee Members and Chairs
Prize committees are essential to the AAS prizes process. Committee members read all the completed nominations for three cycles: the current year and the previous two years. For most prizes, this typically means reviewing 5–10 nominations. For AAS Fellows, there will be ~20 nominations per year. For the Chambliss Astronomical Writing Prize, committees will review all the nominated textbooks — typically, there are two to three books per cycle.
Terms for all the prize committees are three years (July – June) and are renewable. The active review period begins in mid-July and ends in late October.
The following are expected of all prize committee members:
- Attend a training session at the beginning of the review period to learn the specifics of the review and selection process and how to use the online prize system (OpenWater).
- As a reviewer, respond quickly to emails from the committee chair and the AAS Secretary to create an online account, access nominations, and learn how the review and selection processes will be conducted, including committee meeting dates, use of rubrics for rating nominations, schedule for discussions, and final selection process.
- The Committee Chair is responsible for organizing their committee; setting up a schedule for reviews, discussion, and selection; and ensuring that the selection process is completed by the end of the review period (usually late October). At the start of deliberations, the Chair checks that each nomination is complete, and that all candidates meet the basic requirements for that committee’s prize. The Chair serves as the main conduit to the Secretary regarding any issues or questions that may arise.
- Each committee selects one awardee, and a backup in the rare case that the prize is not awarded to its first choice for whatever reason. If no suitable candidate for the prize can be found, the committee can recommend to the Secretary that no award be made. The Chair is expected to write a citation for the awardee, with the committee’s input.
- For AAS Fellows selections, the committee will typically have one or two additional members, as it must select about 20 new Fellows from the nominations received. This is a heavier review load than the prize committees. The Fellows Chair will engage their committee to help write citations for the selected Fellows.
- All committee deliberations must be held in confidence. Committee members must not discuss the nominations outside of their committee, even with close colleagues. Selections remain confidential (i.e., embargoed) until the AAS makes the public announcement of each year’s winners — normally at the January AAS Meeting.
- Committee members are expected to bring issues of availability or other concerns to their Chair in a timely fashion, so that the prize selections can be made before the review period ends. The deadline is very hard to extend.
Last updated March 2026