Posted by its-webmaster on 20060303

The International Thermoelectric Society (ITS) announces the ITS Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Research in Thermoelectrics by a young investigator who holds a permanent position in either: academia (tenure track), 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 their 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 2006 award will be presented at the Banquet of the 25th International Conference on Thermoelectrics in Vienna, Austria in August of 2006. In addition, the recipient of the ITS Young Investigator Award will be given an invited talk at the 2006 ITS Conference 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 candidate must be in a tenure track faculty position or employed in a stable position in industry, a government lab or scientific institute (e.g. The Max Planck Institute). It is expected that they should have been in this position at least two years. However, contributions and productivity for the full five years will be considered. Postdoctoral researchers or temporary industrial positions are not eligible. The candidate must be within 5 years of receiving their Ph.D. as of June 1st 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 five-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 in evidence such things as will choose the winner from among the applicants:

A nomination letter and a nomination form are 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 can 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 60 months preceding the June 1st cutoff date. Therefore for the 2006 award the period of consideration is May 31st, 2001 through June 1st, 2006.

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. ICT05 Chairman for the 2006 Award) or his designee and they will serve as 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:

Prof. Ctirad Uher,
President, International Thermoelectric Society
University of Michigan
Dept. of Physics
261 West Hall
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1120
Email: cuher [=at=] umich [dot] edu

A letter of nomination, nomination form 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).

Eight copies of the following should be mailed to the ITS President for distribution. However, instead of mailing the documents, it is preferred that the candidate send the following in pdf format to the ITS President via email for easier distribution.

Full Resume. & Highlights of the 5 years following the Ph.D.
Copies of 1st page of publications, acceptances or submissions in the last 60 months. (Manuscripts to be submitted or in progress will not be considered.)
Titles and locale of contributed or invited presentations given in the 5-year period under consideration.

The Panel Chair must receive applications by:

May 15, 2006
(NOTE: the deadline is fixed each year relative to time of the upcoming ICT Meeting.) To be given full consideration for the 2006 competition, the deadline is May 15, 2006 for all application materials.

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.