Women and MRS Prizes/Awards
A message from C. Barry Carter, MRS Awards Committee Chair
MRS sponsors a number of prestigious prizes, but very, very few have been awarded to women. The Von Hippel Award and Turnbull Lectureship each have been won by a woman only once through 2011, the MRS Medal has never been awarded to a woman, and the Outstanding Young Investigator Award has been awarded on four occasions to women. While it is recognized that the pool of senior women materials researchers eligible for the Von Hippel and Turnbull is relatively small, that is not the case for awards that recognize outstanding contributions during the earlier stages of a career.
It is estimated that 20% of materials researchers are women, a great many of whom have the qualifications to be nominated for MRS awards. Please consider nominating a woman whose contributions to materials science/engineering could qualify her for one of these honors, or for the newer awards such as the Materials Theory Award, the Innovation in Materials Characterization Award, and the Mid-Career Researcher Award. Information about these awards, and for the MRS Fellow, is on the MRS website. Note that, with the exception of the MRS Fellow, membership is not a criterion for nomination for MRS awards.
By increasing the percentage of qualified women nominated for awards, we can make progress toward ensuring that women materials researchers are appropriately represented and recognized. Nomination is the essential first step toward increasing the number of women winning these awards!
If you have any questions about the nomination process, please feel free to contact me at awardsprogram@mrs.org.
Thank you!
C. Barry Carter
Chair, MRS Awards Committee (2012-2014)
Barry Carter, D.Phil. (Oxon), Sc.D. (Cantab)
Professor,
University of Connecticut
Department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering
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