The two AAAS Mentor Awards (Lifetime Mentor Award and Mentor Award) both honor individuals who during their careers demonstrate extraordinary leadership to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering fields and careers. These groups include: women of all racial or ethnic groups; African American, Native American, and Hispanic men; and people with disabilities.
Both awards recognize an individual who has mentored and guided significant numbers of students from underrepresented groups to the completion of doctoral studies or who has impacted the climate of a department, college, or institution to significantly increase the diversity of students pursuing and completing doctoral studies. It is important to indicate in the nomination materials how the nominee’s work resulted in departmental and/or institutional change in terms of the granting of PhDs to underrepresented students. This can be documented not only with quantitative data, but may also be demonstrated through the student and colleague letters of support.
Such commitment and extraordinary effort may be demonstrated by:
- the number and diversity of students mentored;
- assisting students to present and publish their work, to find financial aid, and to provide career guidance;
- providing psychological support, encouragement, and essential strategies for life in the scholarly community;
- continued interest in the individual’s professional advancement.
Requirements
- Category of award (Lifetime Mentor Award or Mentor Award);
- Position, institution, professional address, phone and fax, and home address, phone, and e-mail of the candidate;
- Name, position, institution, professional address, phone, fax, and e-mail of the nominator;
- A summary of the actions that form the basis for the nomination (about 250 words);
- A letter of nomination that enumerates the ways in which the person reflects the purpose of this award, including scholarship, activism, and community building;
- The candidate’s curriculum vitae (3-page maximum);
- The total number of students the candidate mentored at the bachelor’s or master’s level who went on to the doctoral level at other institutions, and the total number of underrepresented students the candidate mentored at the doctoral level;
- A list of students mentored with year PhD earned, institution and current employment;
- A maximum of five supporting letters from students and three supporting letters from colleagues representative of the different spheres in which the candidate has demonstrated effort, results, and commitment. Letters of nominations for candidates who are not direct doctoral mentors must indicate how the nominee mentored graduate students before and during the graduate school years.
- Nominations must be made in English.
Deadline: June 30, 2020