ISCB Awards Policies & Procedures
ISCB is currently offering four annual awards, the Overton Prize, the Innovator Award, the ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award, and the Outstanding Contributions to ISCB Award.
Links within this page:
- Eligibility
- Committee Structure
- Nominations for the Awards
- Selection Process
- Award Elements
- Timeline
- Endowment
Eligibility for the Overton Prize:
The Overton Prize was established by the ISCB in memory of G. Christian Overton, a major contributor to the field of bioinformatics and a member of the ISCB Board of Directors who died unexpectedly in 2000. The annual prize is awarded for outstanding accomplishment to a scientist in the early to mid-career stage (up to a decade post-degree), who has already made a significant contribution to the field of computational biology.
Eligibility for the ISCB Innovator Award:
The ISCB Innovator Award is given to a leading scientist, 10-20 years post-degree, who consistently makes outstanding contributions to the field of computational biology and continues to forge new directions.
Eligibility for the ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award:
The Senior Scientist Accomplishment Award recognizes a member of the computational biology community who is more than two decades post-degree and has made major contributions to the field of computational biology.
Eligibility for the Outstanding Contributions to ISCB Award
The Outstanding Contributions to ISCB Award is in recognition of outstanding service contributions by any member toward the betterment of ISCB through exemplary leadership, education, service, or a combination of the three.
Nominees must be current ISCB members and application should detail the contributions to ISCB made through leadership, education, service, or a combination of the three, and provide examples of these contributions and service to the society. Nominations submitted to the system will be considered for two consecutive years (if they meet all eligibility criteria) if not selected as the awardee the year of submission. After which, a new nomination must be submitted for consideration.
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Committee Structure:
The award selection is the responsibility of the Awards Committee, with approval from the ISCB President. (At the Chair’s discretion, a sub-committee can be charged with reviewing nominees and making a recommendation to the Awards Committee Chair regarding selection of a winner of each of the two annual awards.) The committee is composed of at least six members that are appointed by the Board of Directors of ISCB and the ISCB membership at large. Previous award winners will be invited to propose nominees and to champion the nominees in the initial committee discussions, but will not be members of the Awards committee. Duration of terms is three years. After the three-year term membership will not be renewable as such but, every member will be re-electable by the Board of Directors.
Committee membership should be as representative of the ISCB membership as is possible and practical with respect to geographic and academic / institutional interest. All members of the Awards Committee are to be current members of ISCB.
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Nominations for the Awards:
A letter to the membership will be sent via email on behalf of either the Awards Committee Chair or ISCB President soliciting nominations for the Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award. This letter can be in conjunction with other Society news. Nominations should go to the Committee or Sub-Committee Chair and the ISCB Administrative Officer.
Scientific Award Nominations are requested to arrive with:
- A biosketch or curricular information that is sufficient to evaluate the candidate. In particular all graduation dates, all major career steps and the date of the last degree have to be given.
- A succinct but sufficiently detailed exposition of the major accomplishments
- List of up to ten key citations
Outstanding Contributions to ISCB Award Nominations are requested to arrive with:
- A detailed list of service to ISCB
- Area of service
- Up to 500 word motivation statement describing the members contributions
For a nominee to be given full consideration, the nomination should include as much of the requested information as possible, without being more than three pages long. The committee does not have the responsibility to add missing information.
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Selection Process:
The method of committee communication during the selection process is up to the Chair. However, unless a nominee has the overwhelming approval of all committee members, the process will likely require at least one conference call among the committee members.
Once a selection is made, the Chair must contact the ISCB President with news of the selection and a summary of the rationale behind the decision. Upon gaining approval of the selection from the President, the Committee Chair will contact the winner to share the news. Immediately upon acceptance, the Committee Chair must notify the ISCB Administrative Office to begin making arrangements regarding travel, ordering the medal, notifying the organizers of ISMB, etc.
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Award Elements:
The winner of either award will be awarded the following:
- Keynote presentation slot during ISMB Conference (ideally on first or last full day of conference) **Scientific Awards Only**
- Travel and Hotel expenses to attend ISMB paid by ISCB
- A personalized award presented at the ISMB meeting
Conferral of the degree is contingent upon the candidate attending the next ISMB Conference and presenting his or her award lecture.
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Timeline:
In order to allow adequate time for review of nominations and notification to the winner in time to fit into his/her schedule to attend ISMB, the recommended nominations timeline is as follows:
- October of pre-conference year: Letter soliciting nominations
- December 2 of pre-conference year: Nominations cut-off
- end of pre-conference year: Selection of proposed winner and notification to ISCB President
- mid January of conference year: Notification to winner
Each of the above time references represent the latest recommended timing, and every effort should be made to work in advance of said deadlines. However, falling behind in any or all of the above activities will not necessarily prevent ISCB from presenting an Overton Prize, Innovator Award, or Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award for that year.
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Overton Prize Endowment:
ISCB must solicit contributions toward the endowment of the annual Overton Prize through corporate and institutional sponsorships, letters to the membership, newsletter articles, and ISCB membership renewal contribution options. Contributions at the level of $5,000.00 will be acknowledged as Principal Sponsors and all contributions at the level of $1,000.00 or more will be acknowledged as Supporting Sponsors in a brochure distributed at each year’s award of the prize. All contributions are tax deductible.
ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award Endowment:
ISCB must solicit contributions toward the endowment of the annual Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award through corporate and institutional sponsorships, letters to the membership, newsletter articles, and ISCB membership renewal contribution options. Contributions at the level of $5,000.00 will be acknowledged as Principal Sponsors and all contributions at the level of $1,000.00 or more will be acknowledged as Supporting Sponsors in a brochure distributed at each year’s award of the prize. All contributions are tax deductible.
