IEEE GRSS Early Career Award

The GRSS Early Career Award is to promote, recognize and support young scientists and engineers within the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society who have demonstrated outstanding ability and promise for significant contributions in the future.

Eligibility

The candidate must be an IEEE GRSS member for at least 5 years with an age of less than 35 years at the time of nomination. They must have made outstanding contributions in one or more GRSS field(s) of interest. Previous winners of this award are ineligible.

Eligibility and selection process shall comply with procedures and regulation established in IEEE and Society governing documents, particularly with IEEE Policy 4.4 on Awards Limitations.

 

Award Items

Prize items are a Certificate and US$1500 honorarium.

Frequency

The prize shall be presented annually to one recipient, provided a qualified candidate is nominated.

Nominee Solicitation

The nomination package including the following materials must be submitted by an IEEE GRSS member via the Award Nomination Tool by December 15:

  • nomination template can be obtained here or through the Award Nomination Tool
  • a nomination letter, no more than 2-pages in length, from a GRSS member
  • a complete curriculum vitae of the candidate
  • at least 2 recommendation letters from individuals familiar with the candidate’s technical contributions and achievements

Selection/Basis for Judging

Criteria for the candidate selection are:

  • quality, significance and impact of contributions

  • papers published in archival journals

  • papers presented at conferences and symposia

  • patents

  • demonstration of leadership

  • advancement of their profession

The special awards evaluation committee consists typically of 7 GRSS members who have already received at least one special award of the society and are not member of the GRSS AdCom. Each member of the evaluation committee provides for each candidate a rating as follows:

  • 3 – truly outstanding and long overdue

  • 2 – strong contender

  • 1 – consider later

  • 0 – not to be considered

The rating is typically a non-integer number. The final ranking is the sum of the ranks given by each evaluator. If the average of the rankings for all candidates is less than 2, the award is not presented in that year. In the event of a tie, a virtual meeting is organized with the members of the evaluation committee. A decision is made based on a discussion of how well both candidates meet the selection criteria. Next, the special awards chair forwards the selected candidate, along with the list of all candidates and the respective ratings, to the GRSS president, who approves the recommendation of the evaluation committee. Finally, the GRSS AdCom endorses the selection of the major award recipient in an executive session at the March AdCom meeting.

Award Timeline

15 December

Award Nomination deadline

Late December

Pre-screening and assignment of 3-4 reviewers for each nomination

Early February

Nomination reviews are completed

Mid-February

Final consideration and votes for tie-breaks of nominations from GRSS-SAC members

Early March

Award recipients are notified. 

Presentation

The award shall be presented at an awards ceremony during the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS, together with other IEEE GRSS awards.

Special Awards Committee

  • Jaya Sreevalsan Nair: Chair (India)

  • Paolo Gamba (Italy)

  • Jeffrey Walker (Australia)

  • Yanfeng Gu (China)

  • Xiaoxiang Zhu (Germany)

  • Xiuping Jia (Australia)

  • W. Linwood Jones (USA) 

Contact: grss-award-spec@ieee.org