Call for Candidates to the 2016 Annual Young Investigator Award

The International Thermoelectric Society (ITS) announces the 2016 ITS Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research in Thermoelectrics by a young investigator who holds a researcher/engineer position in either: academia, industry, government lab or scientific institute (e.g. The Max Planck Institute).  This award is to be given to a young researcher who has exhibited a record of excellent original work and significant results in the field of thermoelectrics or thermoelectric materials.  The recipient should have shown significant research in the early stages of his/her career. 

The award is sponsored by The International Thermoelectrics Society (ITS) and carries a cash prize of two thousand dollars ($2000 in US currency) and a Descriptive Certificate. The 2016 award will be presented at the Banquet of the 35th International Conference on Thermoelectrics (ICT 2016), in Wuhan, China. The 2016 Award will also include a US$1000 contribution to the awardee to cover travel and fees for attending ICT 2016, May 29 - June 2, 2016 in Wuhan, China.

In addition, the recipient of the ITS Young Investigator Award will be given an invited talk at the ICT 2016 in order to highlight the research leading to the award.

Eligibility:
The candidates are expected to hold a Ph.D. Degree and be actively engaged in theoretical, experimental, synthesis or device research in the field of thermoelectrics. The candidates must be in a researcher position or employed in a stable position in industry, a government lab or scientific institute.  The candidates must be within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D. as of June 30 of the year of the nomination.

The ITS Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research in Thermoelectrics is intended for truly exceptional contributions to the field for a ten-year period following the nominee’s Ph.D. The ITS Young Investigator Award is intended to be an annual award. However, in the event of the lack of applications that the ITS Board or Award Selection Committee views as meeting the expectations for this award, then no award will be given that year.

Criteria for selection:
An Award Selection Panel who will consider the aforementioned eligibility criteria will choose the winner from among the applicants:

A nomination letter is required. A full resume of the candidate and highlighting the contributions justifying the nomination is also required.  Three letters of reference are required in addition to the nomination letter. None of the letters should exceed two pages.

The work will not be judged as part of their Ph.D. thesis but work that occurred after their Ph.D. research. The work may be a continuation of their Ph.D., but significant new contributions and findings will be required.  The selection committee will be considering only original work and contributions.

Journal Articles with publication dates, acceptance dates or submission dates within the 120 months preceding the June 30 cutoff date. Therefore for the 2016 award the period of consideration is July 1st, 2006 through June 30, 2016.

Presentations at local, national and international meetings as well as invited seminars and colloquia in the same time period will be considered.

Other awards or recognition will also be considered.

Selection Panel:
The Selection Panel will consist of the previous ITS conference chair (i.e. ICT 2015 Chairman for the 2016 Award) or his designee and he/she will serve as the Panel Chair. The Panel Deputy Chair will be appointed by the ITS President. The Panel Chair with the help of the Deputy Chair will nominate up to but not exceeding four other non-ITS Board members representing various geographical regions. The panel selection is accomplished through action of the ITS Board via whatever means are most convenient, most likely via email exchange.

Application:
Should be sent to the current ITS President:

Donald Morelli, President, International Thermoelectric Society
Professor of Materials Science
Associate Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
USA
Tel: 517-432-5453
Fax: 517-432-1105
Email: dmorelli@egr.msu.edu 

A letter of nomination and no more than three letters of recommendation should be sent to the ITS President directly from the references and nominator. (An email attachment as a word or pdf document is preferred).

Full Resume & Highlights of the 10 years following the Ph.D.

Copies of 1st page of publications, acceptances, or submissions in the last 120 months. (Manuscripts to be submitted or in progress will not be considered.)

Titles and locale of contributed or invited presentations given in the 10-year period under consideration.

The ITS President must receive applications by:

March 11, 2016

Each panelist will rank the applications using a standardized format that will weigh in the different criteria, and will submit the results to both the Panel Chair and Deputy Chair by e-mail. Ties will be resolved by vote organized by email or by a conference call among all Panelists. If there is any difficulty in the winner attending the conference the organizing committee will endeavor to aid the winner in a feasible and reasonable manner.