Pellas-Ryder Award

The Award is limited to undergraduate and graduate students who are first authors of a papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals during a specific calendar year. The first author must have been a registered student at a degree awarding institution at the time the paper was submitted to the publishing journal. Two letters of certification are required: (1) From the student's department head attesting that the individual was a student at the time of paper submission to the publishing journal; (2) From the student's advisor detailing the portion of the work done by the student and contributed by others including the advisor. Planetary science papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals published in English only will be considered for this award. Students of Selection Committee members are not eligible for the Award.

Papers will be considered for the Award by nomination to the Selection Committee. Committee members, full members of the Geological Society of America, full members of the Meteoritical Society, or full members of any of their associated societies may make nominations.

Nominations should be sent (as PDF documents) to the Chair of the Selection Committee, Sam Birch (email) or to the Secretaries of either the Planetary Geology Division or the Meteoritical Society (who will forward to the committee chair). Questions or inquiries may be directed to the Chair of the Selection Committee.

The deadline for nominations is January 31 each year. The Selection Committee will review nominated papers published during the previous calendar year, and create a short list by the end of February. Committee members will read the short list and make their rankings in time for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in mid-March. The Committee will meet at LPSC and settle on their final recommendations. At least one month before the Meteoritical Council gathers at the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society, the Committee Chair will send a report of the recommendation to the two Societies. Included in the report will be the abstract of the paper and an explanation of why the paper is being recommended for the Award.

The Meteoritical Society provides a check for $500 U.S., and sends it directly to the recipient after notifying the recipient that they have been selected to receive the Award. GSA provides the recipient with a framed certificate. If the recipient attends either the GSA Annual Meeting or the Meteoritical Society Annual Meeting in the year of the award, the certificate is presented there. Otherwise, the certificate is presented at the annual LPSC meeting the year following the award. If the recipient attends none of these conferences, GSA ships the certificate to the recipient. A brief citation, written by the Committee Chair and the lead nominator, is published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science and included in the GSA Planetary Geology Division newsletter.