Advanced Textbooks Deserve Recognition Too

Have you written a textbook for an upper-division undergraduate or graduate-level course in the astronomical sciences? Or are you teaching such a course using such a textbook? If so, and if you think that textbook is particularly good, please consider nominating it for the Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award, which celebrates astronomy writing for an academic audience.

Introductory textbooks and popular astronomy books have large markets and are eligible for a variety of other awards and prizes. Textbooks serving undergraduate majors and graduate students in astronomy-related disciplines, by contrast, have relatively small markets. Excellence in this area is rarely recognized, despite the vital role such books serve in professional development. The Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award is a rare exception.

Books suitable for this award must be available in North America. The prize includes a single gold medal and a $1,000 monetary award (which will be divided among multiple authors as appropriate). As is true for most AAS honors, prizes, and awards, self-nominations are allowed. The AAS has extended the usual 30 June prize-nomination deadline to 14 July, so you still have time to nominate your favorite textbook — the one you wrote or the one you’re using in your upper-level undergraduate or graduate course — for the Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award.