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​​Awards and Honors Committee

Awards and Honors Committee​​​​​

Purpose

The Awards and Honors Committee (AHC) oversees the Society's honorary awards and recognitions to ensure they meet the needs and goals of APS. The Committee ensures that APS consistently maintains a robust, fair process for the annual nomination, review, and selection of high-quality candidates for awards and recognition. 

Charge

The Committee will annually review and evaluate nominees for APS honorary awards based upon the award criteria and nomination requirements. The Chair will present the AHC recommendations of awardees to APS Council for approval along with any other items requiring Council action/approval such as nominees for the APS Distinguished Service Award, requests for establishment of new society awards, or suggestions to remove award categories deemed no longer appropriate. 

Organizational Structure​ and Terms

The committee consists of seven voting members that include:​

• Chair 

• Vice Chair

• ​​Selected from the current committee members that are APS Fellows. Candidate to be forwarded to APS Council for final approval. 

• ​The position of vice chair is the first of a 3-year ascension through​ the chair lineage, moving to chair the second year, and immediate past chair the third year. 
  

• ​​Immediate Past Chair

• ​Four Committee Members, each serving a 3-year term, but may not serve more than two consecutive terms. 

• The Committee will nominate two new members each year, ensuring to maintain the balance of having at least five APS Fellows on the committee. Committee members will be formerly appointed by a majority vote of the Committee. ​​

• The APS President serves as ex-officio, non-voting and is the Council liaison to the committee. 

General Responsibilities​ & Duties

• ​Along with APS s​taff, the Committee will solicit nominations for the various honorary awards from APS and from members of associated societies for non-member awards, when appropriate. 
  

• In accordance to the APS Bylaws [section 5. Honors] the number of Fellows that can be awarded each year is limited to approximately .​25% of the total membership annually. 
  

• In addition to new nominations received during the current award cycle, the Committee may reconsider those eligible nominations received the prior two award cycles, with the exception of nominations for the following awards that only stand for one award cycle: Lee M. Hutchins, Hewitt, and Noel T. Keen (presented in even years).   ​
  

• The Committee will encourage nominators who are re-nominating eligible individuals, to include an updated cover letter along with any new credentials or supporting​ data and resubmit a new nomination packet by the required deadline. ​
  

• The Committee may consider nominations of APS Fellows* for a subsequent 'award of excellence' but only if the nomination is based upon accomplishments distinctly different from those on which the Fellow's nomination was based originally, and where the new accomplishment has occurred after recognition as Fellow. 
       *A period of 5 years should elapse between recognition as Fellow and nomination for an 'award of excellence'.

• Following the award nomination deadline, the Committee will meet virtually in January to review, evaluate, and select awardees, and other business items as needed. The Committee may meet additionally throughout the year as needed to conduct business. The APS President does not partake in committee meetings or review of award nominations. ​
  

• Following the January meeting, the Chair will submit a report to APS Council that includes approval of selected honorary award recipients, the incoming AHC vice chair candidate, and any other items requiring action/approval from Council.
  

• Following Council's approval of the honorary awards, the APS President will contact awardees to​ personally congratulate them. 
  

• After the awardees are notified by the APS President, the Committee along with support from APS staff shall prepare materials for the formal APS award announcement and award presentation. APS staff will manage ordering the awards, honorariums (where appropriate), presentation materials, along with overseeing the logistics for the award ceremony at the APS annual meeting​. ​

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