I just got an email from France Córdova asking for nominations for the Waterman Award. It goes to a US Citizen or permanent resident under 35 and not 7 years past Ph.D. It needs 4 letters of reference. Nominations are due 23 October this year.
Women have not gotten this award since 2004 when Kristi Anseth received it. In fact, from 2000 to 2004 three of the five recipients were women, adding Angelica Amon and Jennifer Doudna. I’m guessing Jennifer is soon to get much larger recognition.
Meghan Duffy has written about bias issues with this award here. There are likely to be issues with both the nomination process and the selection process. I’m not on the committee, so the only one I can influence is the nomination process. It takes four letters of reference.
If you are 35 or younger by 31 December 2015, or know someone who is, and is an excellent female or underrepresented minority scientist, let’s get them nominated and awarded!
The Association for Women in Science (AWIS, awis.org) is very active in this area. Indeed, I am co-author on several of their articles about how awards affect men and women’s careers differentially, and how to ensure a fair process. Let me know if you’d like reprints!
Joan Herbers, Ohio State
herbers.4@osu.edu
Love to see reprints! Is there a clearing house listing all awards in all biology fields? I feel like I learn about them so haphazadly.
Reprints coming via email to Joan S. The website for the RAISE project (raise project.org) has a comprehensive list of major awards and awardees.