ISCB Awards Policies & Procedures

ISCB is currently offering two annual awards, the Overton Prize and the ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award.

Eligibility for the Overton Prize:
The annual prize is awarded for outstanding accomplishment to a scientist in the early to mid stage of his or her career, with a guideline of up to a decade post degree, who has already made a significant contribution to the field of computational biology either through research, education, service, or a combination.

Eligibility for the ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award:
The annual award specifically recognizes a senior member of the computational biology community who has created a major body of work in the field of computational biology either through research, education, service, or a combination.

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 up to six previous award winners. Award winners will join the committee in the year of their award. Duration of terms is three years. After the three-year term the award winners 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 membership as is possible and practical with respect to geographic and academic / institutional interest.

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. 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 citationsFor 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.

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.

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)
Travel and Hotel expenses to attend ISMB paid by ISCB
A personalized award presented at the ISMB meeting
$1,000.00 honorarium (funds permitting)

Conferral of the degree is contingent upon the candidate attending the next ISMB Conference and presenting his award lecture.

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
November 30 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 or Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award for that year.

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.

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