Annual BSM Thesis Award

Amended rules, valid as of March 5, 2009 (also available as a pdf-file)

Description of the award

  • Article 1. The BSM intends to award up to three prizes annually to members who have successfully defended their PhD thesis on a microscopy¬related subject in Belgium.

  • Article 2. Preferentially there will be one award in each of the following three areas: Life Sciences Physics and Materials Sciences Instrumentation and Methods However, the jury can decide not to give an award in any one of these areas, or to award more than one prize in one area, if deemed appropriate. Also, the jury can decide to award less than three prizes if there are insufficient high quality nominations.

  • Article 3. The award winners receive a certificate and 1000 EURO. The award winners will be announced at the BSM Annual Meeting or similar gathering. Awards are not divisible.

  • Article 4. Nominations will be judged on their contribution to the advancement of Microscopy in Belgium. This can include the development of new methods or instrumentation, application of existing methods in new fields of research, use of techniques new to Belgium, or the demonstration of the power of microscopy by extensive use of microscopy data. The term Microscopy is used in a broad sense, including all techniques providing information with a spatial resolution better than the naked human eye, and supporting techniques such as image analysis. Other criteria include originality, quality of scientific work, and clarity of writing.

 

Eligibility criteria

  • Article 5. Only registered BSM members who have paid their annual fee are eligible for the award.

  • Article 6. The PhD thesis should have been successfully defended within the period up to two calendar years preceding the submission deadline. For example, if the deadline is April 1, 2009, then PhD theses defended after January 1, 2007, are eligible for an award.

  • Article 7. Nominations that have not received an award can be resubmitted within the period described in Article 6.

  • Article 8. The prize cannot be awarded to candidates who already have been recipient of the award in a previous year.

  • Article 9. Active Members of the Board cannot be nominated.

 

Submission procedure

  • Article 10. Nominations can be submitted by the candidate him/herself, or by others, who are then responsible for the complete nomination file of the candidate.

  • Article 11. The nomination file consists of the following documents: (1)curriculum vitae (2) complete bibliography (3) PhD thesis and (4) 1 page summary of the candidate’s main scientific achievements. The nomination file should be submitted electronically to the BSM Secretary.

  • Article 12. The deadline for submissions is April 1st of the year of the award, unless the Board decides on a different deadline, which will then be announced on the website and by e¬mail to all members at least one month before the deadline.

 

Evaluation procedure

  • Article 13. The BSM Board acts as the jury and decides on the validity of the submissions and evaluates the submissions. The decisions taken by the Board are made by ordinary majority of votes. In case of equal number of votes, the President decides. The decisions made by the Board are irrevocable and are not the subject of any correspondence whatsoever.

  • Article 14. Board members cannot participate in the evaluation and voting on nominees who belong to their research group, or with whom they have collaborated in the thesis work.


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