Eligibility

The Special Awards Committee may give preference to candidates who:

• A member of GRSS and IEEE for at least 5 years
• IEEE GRSS member with the Grade of Senior Member or Fellow
• Are pivotal and have performed significant contributions in a region where the GRSS membership and local activities have substantially increased in recent years

The award is presented only once to an individual.

Eligibility and the 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

Certificate and US$1500 honorarium.

Frequency

The award 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 4 pages in length, clearly identifying, with evidence and references, the contributions and the impact of the candidate’s work
• a complete curriculum vitae of the candidate
• at least 2 recommendation letters from individuals familiar with the candidate’s regional achievements

Selection/Basis for Judging

• quality, significance and impact of the candidate’s activities

• quantity of contributions

• duration of significant activity

• presence in the GRSS community

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

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)

Contact: grss-award-spec@ieee.org