Nominations are invited for next year's Vera Rubin Early Career Prize of the Division on Dynamical Astronomy. Each year since 2017, the division recognizes an early career dynamicist. The prize recipient is honored with a certificate, an honorarium, and an invited lecture at the annual meeting of the DDA.
Candidates for this prize must have held a recognized doctorate for not more than 10 years measured from the date their doctorate was awarded to the nomination due date. However, the nominee may request an extension to this time limitation to allow for career breaks.
Candidates may be of any nationality and need not be members of the DDA. The DDA strongly encourages Rubin prize applications from members of underrepresented groups in dynamical astronomy.
The Vera Rubin Early Career Prize of the DDA shall be granted on the basis of the following criteria:
- excellence in scientific research in dynamical astronomy or closely related fields,
- positive impact and influence in the field, scientific or otherwise, and
- promise of continued excellence in research, teaching, and the advancement and support of the field of dynamical astronomy.
For the purposes of these awards and prizes, the field of Dynamical Astronomy contains but is not limited to the sub-fields of celestial mechanics, astrometry, geophysics, cosmology, and star and planet formation as well as Solar System, exoplanet, planetary system, stellar system, galactic, extra-galactic, relativistic, and astrophysical fluid dynamics. The Rubin Early Career Prize committee (listed here) has final authority over the appropriateness of a nomination.
Nomination procedure and requirements:
Nominations for the 2021 prize are due by March 15, 2021. Nominations will remain active for a period of three years, unless the candidate becomes ineligible for consideration.
Note on self-nominations: Following the practice recently adopted by the AAS, we now accept self-nominations for all prizes. We intend that the prize selection committee will be "blind" regarding whether a candidate was nominated by someone else or was self-nominated. Accordingly, all three letters of support must say something like "I am writing to support the nomination of [candidate's name]" rather than "I am writing to nominate [candidate's name]." Any letter of support that suggests that the author is directly "nominating" the candidate rather than "supporting the nomination of" the candidate will be returned for a rewrite.
If you have any questions, please contact the DDA Secretary.