Prize guidelines

The following guidelines are a lightly edited version of a document that was approved by the International Advisory Committee of Hadron 2021.

  1. Following the untimely demise of our beloved colleague Simon Eidelman (1948–2021), it was agreed by the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the series of conferences on Hadron Spectroscopy and Structure to establish a prize in his memory. The concept has been agreed to by Simon’s closest colleagues from Novosibirsk, and by his family.
  2. These guidelines were prepared by a subset of the Hadron IAC and provide details of how the prize shall be run.
  3. Some points have benefitted from discussions with members of the selection committee for the Guido Altarelli award, which is connected to the DIS conference series.
  4. The spirit of the prize is
    • To support a junior scientist strongly for her/his excellence in research and also — as Simon would have surely done — to show this young researcher the way to follow: correct firmly though kindly when needed, take into account everyone's views with equity and inclusiveness, discuss politely only based on physics, never inflate one's work and appreciate others'. Both the scientific top quality and the absolutely professional behaviour of Simon are to be honoured with each and every winner of this prize, through the years.
  5. It is proposed to have a single prize awarded at each edition of the Hadron conference, i.e. biennially. The focus will be on contributions to experimental hadron physics, including theory developments that facilitate significant experimental progress (hence reflecting Simon’s main contributions to the field)
  6. It is an explicit goal of the prize to help early career researchers obtain recognition. The eligibility requirement is for not more than 8 years experience after Ph.D. award, allowing for career breaks where appropriate.
  7. A selection committee will be established, composed of 5 or 6 members, drawn largely (but not necessarily exclusively) from the Hadron IAC. The committee is expected to be diverse in terms of gender, nationality, and scientific expertise (within the remit of the prize). Past winners of the prize will be considered as potential committee members. The committee will be established at the same time as the IAC for each Hadron conference is set up.
  8. All committee members must commit to full involvement in the process. Those who are too busy with other commitments should step down and be replaced. To ensure a balance between reasonable rotation and continuity of committee members, there will be a normal limit of three terms for any committee member.
  9. The committee will confirm the chair, and appoint a deputy chair at its first meeting. The chair is responsible for ensuring the selection procedure and award process runs as set out in this document. The deputy chair becomes the chair of the subsequent selection committee.
  10. The committee will solicit nominations for the prize. This will include advertising on the homepage of the Hadron conference and direct contact to the relevant experimental collaborations (which can be done through contacts in the Hadron IAC).
  11. Nominations can be made by anyone, but self-nominations are not accepted. The nomination should include a short cover letter justifying the nomination together with the names of two referees, a copy of the candidate’s CV and a list of their main contributions to the field (usually publications but other scientific outputs such as software packages will also be considered).
  12. After the nomination deadline the committee will independently rank the nominations and then meet to discuss those that will be shortlisted. The chair will then collect reference letters for shortlisted candidates, which may include requesting extra letters beyond those from the referees suggested in the nomination material. After receiving all such inputs, the committee will make another independent ranking and then meet to decide the prize winner.
  13. It is expected that, in most cases, after discussion the committee will reach unanimous consensus. If this is not the case the chair may call a vote to decide the winner (the chair holds the casting vote).
  14. All deliberations of the committee will be kept confidential.
  15. A rough timeline for the process, with respect to the start of the Hadron conference, is as follows
    • −9 months: call for nominations
    • −6 months: deadline for nominations
    • −5 months: shortlisting completed, call for reference letters
    • −3 months: prize winner decided
  16. The chair will inform the Hadron IAC and the local organisers of the outcome of the process, as well as contacting the winner. The formal announcement of the prize winner will be made at the Hadron conference
  17. It is expected that the committee will monitor diversity of nominees and award winners, and if necessary take action to ensure that good candidates are considered from across the communities active in the relevant fields.
  18. The prize consists of (a) a plenary talk at the conference; (b) a certificate; (c) a financial award (noting that the prestige of the prize is far more important than the cash amount).
  19. Every effort will be made to ensure that the prize winner is able to attend the Hadron conference in person to be awarded the prize and present their talk.