Formal letters of nomination are now invited for the Distinguished Scientist Award. Award candidates may be nominated by anyone who has been involved in hypervelocity impact science and engineering, not just Society members. In preparing the letter of nomination, nominators should:
The Awards Committee would like to see the widest participation from the scientific community in nominating a Distinguished Scientist whose contributions reflect the talents of researchers around the world.
Nominations must be received no later than March 1, 2022. Questions about the award should be directed to the committee chair, Joshua Miller.
The process for selection is based on a list of candidates generated by members of the Board of Directors and from the previous Awards Committee. The Chairman also solicits input from the HVIS membership at large through a formal mailing or through the HVIS Newsletter. The list of candidates is determined at least one year before the award is made. A nomination is comprised of a formal letter of nomination and supporting information about the candidate.
Once the list of candidates is determined, the Committee goes through several rounds of voting to identify the winner. Past committees have used different approaches, but generally the criteria for selection includes:
The recipient(s) for the Distinguished Science Award is selected at least three months prior to the HVIS meeting in order to give the recipient sufficient time to prepare an acceptance keynote speech to be given at the upcoming Symposium. Once the award recipient(s) has been determined, the Chairman notifies the President of the Society. The President will obtain a concurrence from the Board and then notify the award recipient(s) formally in writing.
The award consists of a plaque citing the accomplishments of the award recipient(s) and a monetary remuneration set by the Board of Directors. The recipient(s) also becomes an Honorary Member of the Society, i.e., a lifetime member with all the privileges and responsibilities of a regular member except that dues are waived.
The award is given for sustained leadership, innovation and technical excellence in hypervelocity research. Each award recipient is also recognized for their specific contributions to the field.
Alexander C. Charters (General Research Corporation), 1989
Alois J. Stilp and Volker Hohler (Ernst-Mach-Institut), 1992
James R. Asay (Sandia National Laboratories), 1994
Burton G. Cour-Palais (NASA-JSC), 1996
Hallock F. Swift (Physics Applications, Inc.), 1998
Charles E. Anderson, Jr. (Southwest Research Institute), 2000
Dennis L. Orphal (International Research Associates, Inc.), 2003
Lalit C. Chhabildas (Sandia National Laboratories), 2005
Gordon R. Johnson (Southwest Research Institute), 2007
Peter H. Schultz (Brown University), 2010
Andrew J. Piekutowski (University of Dayton Research Institute), 2012
William P. Schonberg (Missouri University of Science and Technology), 2015
David A. Crawford (Sandia National Laboratories), 2017
Dennis E. Grady (Applied Research Associates), 2019