Honors

FECS Diversity and Inclusion Award

Efforts to improve the climate in physics are vital to the health and advancement of individual programs and the discipline as a whole. The APS Forum for Early Career Scientists (FECS) recognizes the invaluable and often uncelebrated contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion of early career scientists through an annual award.   
The FECS Diversity & Inclusion Award is a $2500 honorarium and certificate of recognition presented to an early career scientist who has made such a contribution. The awardee will also be invited to give a talk at a future FECS session at an APS meeting.

Rules and Eligibility:

The nominee must be a FECS member (free to join for APS members), and an early-career scientists who received their terminal degree in the past 10 years.

Nomination and Selection Process:

The nomination letter should include a statement (500-word maximum) about the nominee's past contributions to diversity and inclusion within STEM, broadly defined. Self-nominations are welcome. The nominee's CV and contact information for one reference, or for two references in the case of a self-nomination, are also required. 


A subcommittee of the FECS Executive Committee will evaluate nominations and select a set of finalists for the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) award. The references for the finalists will then be contacted, and a second round of review will be conducted to select an awardee.


Criteria that will be considered include: the significance and impact of D&I work by the nominee, the depth and duration of D&I work by the nominee, and the interest in ongoing or future D&I work on the part of the nominee. Evaluators will apply a broad and inclusive definition of D&I work.


Nominations for the 2024 award are open and due June 30, 2024. Submit nominations here. Please send any questions to Andrew Seredinski, member at large of the FECS executive committee (seredinskia@wit.edu).

Previous Awardees