I am on the NSS Awards Committee and in my role as the new chair of the
Science Award subcommittee, I want to strongly encourage you to submit
a nomination for next year’s NSS Science Award. I’m sure you can think
of some good scientists in the various cave/karst/pseudokarst
disciplines who deserve the recognition. We are looking for people who
have made significant contributions to the sciences, but who are also
still very active. Close association of the scientist with NSS is not
mandatory, but preferable. The nominee must be an NSS member for at
least the past two years. Strong preference will be given to nominees
who have not received the NSS Honorary Member or Outstanding Service
awards (if you’re not sure, check next to the person’s name in your NSS
Members Manual or I can let you know).
The previous Science Award
recipients are:
1994 William B. White (geoscience)
1995 John Holsinger (biology)
1996 Arthur N. Palmer (geoscience)
1997 Derek Ford (geoscience)
1998 Thomas Poulson (biology)
1999 Patty Jo Watson (archeology)
2000 John Mylroie (geoscience)
2001 James R. Reddell (biology)
2002 Carol A. Hill (mineralogy)
2003 Paolo Forti (geoscience)
2004 E. Calvin Alexander, Jr. (geoscience)
2005 Francis G. Howarth (biology)
Your nomination letter should include details of the nominee’s
contribution to cave science. Please do not assume that “everyone”
knows your nominee and your nominee’s merits. Many members of the
Awards Committee and the NSS Board of Governors are not scientists and
will need this information to make a sound decision. If you do not send
supporting information, I guarantee your nominee will not be selected.
A resume attached to your nomination letter is very useful (and can
often be obtained by collusion with the nominee’s significant other).
Please do not let your nominee know that they have been nominated – not
knowing that you were not selected is much nicer than knowing. Letters
from other people supporting your nomination are helpful, especially if
they provide additional useful insights into the nominee’s
contributions.
Last year, we had some excellent nominees. If your nominee was not
selected and you still support that nomination, let me know and I’ll
recycle the nomination materials; feel free to send updated material if
you wish. Some excellent nominees did not rank highly in previous years
because little or no supporting information was provided. Those
nominations will not be recycled unless you provide some pertinent
details about the scientist.
The nominations can be sent to me by mail, e-mail, fax, or as attached
e-mail documents.
The deadline is November 15th. If you have general
questions about the nomination procedure, contact Awards Committee
Chairman Bill Tozer at WTozer@aol.com.
Thanks,
Diana
Diana Northup
Biology Department
MSC03 20202
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
+1-505-277-5232 (voice)
+1-505-277-6318 (fax)
dnorthup@unm.edu