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Nomination Guidelines & Schedule

Awards

 

2025 ASP Awards Nominations open in December, 2024

Each award given in 2025 will be updated when nominations open up. The submission deadline is now permanently March 15 of each year (unless an extension has been announced).


About the ASP Awards

The ASP recognizes individual achievements in astronomy research, technology, education, and public outreach each year. Recipients of our awards have included luminaries such as Edwin Hubble, Vera Rubin, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Burbidge, Carl Sagan, and most recently, Katherine Johnson.

The nomination process begins sometime between December and January, and nominations are due by March 15 of the given year. Awardees are notified in early Summer followed by a Press Release in the late Summer. Our annual Awards Gala, typically in person, is held in the late Fall each year to celebrate the accomplishments of each award recipient.



2024 Awards details, guidelines, and submission dates are listed below

Professional Awards:

Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal

Awarded since 1898 for a lifetime of outstanding research in astronomy

Our highest award is the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, awarded for a lifetime of outstanding research in astronomy and has gone to some of the greatest astronomers of the past century.

The next Bruce Gold Medal will be awarded in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines

Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award

For important research results based upon development of groundbreaking instruments and techniques

The Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award is given for recent significant observational results made possible by innovative advances in astronomical instrumentation, software, or observational infrastructure.

The next Muhlmann Award will be given in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines

 

Robert J. Trumpler Award

For a recent PhD thesis considered unusually important to astronomy

The Robert J. Trumpler Award is given each year to a recent recipient of the PhD degree in North America whose research is considered unusually important to astronomy. (Due to COVID, two Trumpler Awards were given in 2021, one for 2020, and one for 2021.)

The next Trumpler Award will be given in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines


Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Awards

Nancy Grace Roman Award

For significant contributions to promoting gender equity and inclusion in astronomy and related fields

Inaugurated in 2023, the new Nancy Grace Roman Award celebrates the achievements of individuals, groups, or organizations working to encourage participation in astronomy and related fields by people traditionally or currently excluded from these fields because of their gender, including girls, women, and transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people. 

The Nancy Grace Roman Award was innaugurated in 2023 and will next be awarded in 2025.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines

 

Arthur B.C. Walker II Award

The Arthur B.C. Walker II Award is presented to an outstanding African American (or member of the African Diaspora) who works in the areas of astronomy (including astronomy, astrophysics, space, and related sciences) as a recognized leader in efforts to diversify the scientific community.

The Walker Award will be given in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines


Amateur Astronomy Awards

Gordon Myers Amateur Achievement Award

For significant observational or technical achievements by an amateur astronomer

The newly named Gordon Myers Amateur Achievement Award recognizes significant observational or technological contributions to astronomy or amateur astronomy by an individual not employed in the field of astronomy in a professional capacity.

The last Myers Award was given in 2023.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines

 

Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award

For outstanding outreach by an amateur astronomer to children and the public

The Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award, given for the first time in 2001, seeks to honor outstanding educational outreach by an amateur astronomer to K-12 children and the interested lay public.

The Las Cumbres Awards will be given in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines


Outreach Award

Klumpke-Roberts Award

For outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy

The ASP bestows the Klumpke-Roberts Award on those who have made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. Awardees include Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Chesley Bonestall, Timothy Ferris, Walter Sullivan, Heidi Hammel, and the staffs of Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines.

The next Klumpke-Roberts Award will be given in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines


Education Awards

Thomas J. Brennan Award

For exceptional achievement related to the teaching of astronomy at the high school level

The Thomas J. Brennan Award recognizes excellence in the teaching of astronomy at the high school level in North America. The recipients have demonstrated exceptional commitment to classroom or planetarium education, as well as the training of other teachers.

The last Brennan Award was given in 2021.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines

 

Richard H. Emmons Award

For excellence in college astronomy teaching

Added to our list of honors in 2006, the Richard H. Emmons Award was inspired by a very generous gift from Jeanne and Allan Bishop, in honor of her father, Richard Emmons. Dr. Jeanne Bishop, a well-known astronomy educator in her own right, wished to honor her father, an astronomer with a lifelong dedication to astronomy education, by creating an award that recognizes and celebrates outstanding achievement in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-science majors.

The Emmons Award will be given in 2024.

Award Details and Nomination Guidelines


Customer Support:

If you any questions about the nomination process, submitted nominations or letters of support, have questions, or if you need to update any forms, please contact us at awards@astrosociety.org.

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