Richard Webster Medal 2018 — Call for nominations

by · January 18, 2018

You are encouraged — individually or as a group — to nominate candidates for the Richard Webster Medal of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), to be awarded at the 21st World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS) in Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) in August 2018 (https://www.21wcss.org/). This medal recognizes the person who has most advanced pedometrics in the period between the IUSS WCSS of 2014 and 2018, while also considering achievements prior to that period.

According to the IUSS, “Pedometrics” is defined as “the application of mathematical and statistical methods for the study of the distribution and genesis of soils”; see however an extended discussion of “what is pedometrics?” at http://pedometrtx.cluster026.hosting.ovh.net/?page_id=26.

The eligibility criteria are (1) membership in the IUSS via their national society, (2) to be willing to be a keynote speaker at the next biannual conference of the IUSS Pedometrics Commission, to be held in Guelph (CA) in June 2019.

Scientists eligible for the award will have shown a combination of the following:

  1. distinction in the application of mathematics or statistics in soil science through their published works;
  2. innovative research in the field of pedometrics;
  3. leadership qualities in pedometrics research, for example, by leading a strong research team;
  4. contributions to various aspects of education in pedometrics (e.g., supervision of doctoral students, teaching of pedometrics courses in higher education, the development of courses for broader professional needs); and
  5. service to pedometrics (e.g., by serving on a committee of the Pedometrics Commission, promoting pedometrics to the IUSS, serving as meeting organizer or editor of an important Pedometrics journal).

Nominations procedure

1) Nominations for the Richard Webster Medal should be made by a colleague or colleagues who know the person’s work well. The nomination should include a curriculum vitae and a short statement (a maximum of 750 words) summarizing the relevant qualifications of the nominee with respect to the conditions outlined in the section, requirements and eligibility, above.

2) The proposer(s) should submit the following on behalf of their nominee two months before the next WCSS (i.e., deadline is 12-June-2018).

2a) their published work for the four-year period between consecutive IUSS meetings;

2b) a suitable curriculum vitae that gives one or more the following, always showing clear relevance to pedometrics:

  • all previous scientific publications;
  • positions held;
  • research undertaken;
  • education of others;
  • teaching courses developed;
  • leadership and management of research projects.

Nominations should be sent before 12-June-2018 to the Chairman of the Pedometrics award committee:  David G. Rossiter (ISRIC-World Soil Information (NL), Cornell University (USA); david.rossiter@wur.nl or d.g.rossiter@cornell.edu, with the subject line “Webster medal 2018”.

The nominations will be evaluated on the five criteria by the award committee members:

  • David G. Rossiter (ISRIC-World Soil Information (NL), Cornell University (USA)
  • Sabine Grunwald (University of Florida, USA)
  • Alex McBratney (University of Sydney, Australia)
  • Margaret Oliver (University of Reading, UK)
  • Lin Yang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, PRC)

This committee was appointed by the IUSS Pedometrics Commission advisory board in January 2014 and will serve until the 2018 Congress.

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