European Space Weather Medals

Dear colleagues,

We are happy to announce the 2020 contest for the international space weather medals. Of course, we are aware of the pandemic, and still unable to foresee what the medal ceremony will be. The 17th European Space Weather Week is now postponed until 2021, so we will have to be imaginative. However, these medals provide worldwide recognition in space weather, and we feel that they should not be stopped because of a virus. We will find a way!

Medal recipients’ work must have been documented in peer review journals or book chapters, or must be a technological contribution that has led to a fully implemented new space weather capability. Medal recipients’ work must be relevant to space weather and/or space climate. The work must also be internationally recognized.

In addition to the above common criteria, there are the following specific requirements for each of the three medals:

The Kristian Birkeland Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate:

The recipient of the Kristian Birkeland Medal must have demonstrated a unique ability to combine basic and applied research to develop useful space weather products that are being used outside the research community, and/or across scientific research disciplines. The work must have led to a better physical comprehension of the solar-terrestrial phenomena related to space weather, to a drastic improvement of space weather modeling, or to a new generation of instruments.

The Baron Marcel Nicolet Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate:

The recipient of the Baron Marcel Nicolet Medal must have demonstrated a unique ability to bind the space weather community in a spirit of peace and friendship, to educate within the space weather community, to go also beyond the space weather research community and address larger audiences.

The Alexander Chizhevsky Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate:

The prize rewards a young researcher (younger than 35 years, or having successfully defended her/his thesis within the last 6 years prior to the ESWW2020, i.e. after October 30th, 2014) for outstanding achievements in space weather with an innovative approach.

The six-year period is increased with the duration of any parental leave taken during the period.

How to nominate?

In order to nominate a person for one of the international space weather medals, please send a pdf document including:

• Your name, first name, professional address.
• The name, first name, professional address of the person that you nominate.
• Which of the three medals you nominate the person for.
• Reasons for the nomination (two pages). Please, make sure that these reasons relate to space weather and fulfill the criteria above.
• A full CV of the nominee.
• Please include letters of support from two colleagues, preferably outside your own home institution. You may also include those two colleagues as co-signatories on the proposal. For the Chizhevsky prize, a recommendation letter from the PhD advisor (in case (s)he is not the person sending the application) is recommended.
• Up to five references (journal articles, prizes, patents…).

Self-nominations are not allowed.

The medal committee members cannot be nominated or nominate.

You may resubmit a previous nomination that was not successful. Please indicate in your nomination that you wish the committee to reconsider it. You can update the documents or ask the committee to reconsider the already submitted files.

Send your documents by email only to medals@space-weather.eu. The deadline for the nominations is September, 6th 2020.

Composition of the Medal Committee:

The Medal committee is composed of

• Simone Gutt, the Royal Academy of Belgium,
• Øyvind Sørensen of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
• Dr. Galina Kotova, of the Russian Academy of Science.
• Prof. Jøran Moen, Dr. Pål Brekke, Norway
• Prof. Véronique Dehant, Belgium
• Prof. Anatoli Petrukovich and Prof. Vladimir Kalegaev, Russia

The chair of the ESWW Organizing committee (Mario M. Bisi), Member of the ESWW PC Workgroup for the International Space Weather Medals (R. Van der Linden), the head of the ESA Space Weather Working Team and vice-chair of the medal committee(S. Poedts) and of the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (A. Belehaki).

The following previous winners are also members of the medal committee:

• Bojan Vrsnak, Ji Wu, Elena Popova: in the Committee in 2018 – 2020
• Tamas Gombosi, Hermann Opgenoorth, Christina Kay : in the Committee in 2019 – 2021
• Bruce T. Tsurutani, Delores Knipp, Jiajia Liu : in the Committee in 2020 – 2022

The Medal Committee is chaired by J. Lilensten.