New Prize Nominations Site Coming Soon!

Starting this summer, the Society and its Divisions will be using a new web platform called OpenWater for prize and award management. The site will not only streamline the nomination submission process but also provide tools to selection committee members for sharing and evaluating entries more efficiently. With the new system in place, the Society can more effectively advance our mission through recognizing excellence in the astronomical sciences.

Enhancements for nominators include step-by-step submission instructions and the ability to save work before submitting the final draft. Adding letters of support as they arrive will be a snap. Meanwhile, selection committee members can go online and access submissions at any time and begin their assessments. They can save their scores and return to the nominations at a later date. Selection committee chairs receive dynamic stats of entries completed and remaining to keep the committee on task.

Thinking about nominating a deserving scientist? Nominating yourself? The Society’s current submission requirements will not change when the new site goes live — so you’re welcome to begin compiling the necessary documentation for the following awards:

• Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy — for distinguished contributions by a woman.
• Chambliss Amateur Achievement Award — for exemplary research by an amateur astronomer.
• Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award — for astronomy writing for an academic audience.
• Education Award — for outstanding contributions to astronomy education.
• Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics — awarded jointly with the American Institute of Physics (AIP) for outstanding mid-career work in astrophysics.
• Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy — for outstanding early-career achievement in observational research.
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship — for lifetime preeminence in astronomical research.
• Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize — for outstanding research of an exceptionally creative or innovative character.
• George Van Biesbroeck Prize — for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy.
• Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy — for significant early-career observational or theoretical research.
• Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation — for the design, invention, or improvement of instrumentation.

Typically the nomination deadline for these prizes is 30 June each year. Please work to this date, and we will let you know if the 2019 deadline is extended as we get the OpenWater system ready. Prize nominations already in the hopper through the three-year validity period will be carried forward.