SPD Student Awards

SPD Studentship Awards

The Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society is pleased to announce this program, which for some time has presented a number of awards to outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in pursuing a career in solar physics. The purpose of these awards is to acquaint promising students with the field of solar physics by allowing them to participate actively in the annual SPD meeting (or joint summer meeting with the AGU or AAS, as appropriate).

Depending upon financial need, the awards comprise a fraction of travel and room and board for the duration of the meeting. Awardees are recognized at the meeting.

Applications for the award are solicited via an announcement in SolarNews approximately one month before the abstract deadline for the meeting. Applications should be submitted using the webform at https://forms.gle/RA2L1jYjSi5P1hBS9.

An application consists of the following:

1. Name, university, education level (e.g., undergraduate, master’s student, doctoral student), advisor name
2. Summary of interests and future plans in solar physics
3. Amount of support requested, with justification*

*The SPD strongly encourages applications for partial support, with the remainder of the necessary funds coming from other (e.g., grant, university) sources.

Recipients are expected to deliver either an oral or poster presentation at the meeting. Awardees will be notified sufficiently in advance of the abstract deadline for the meeting for them to make the necessary plans to attend.

Student awardees are expected to attend the entire SPD meeting and to be present at a brief recognition ceremony to be held during the meeting, typically immediately before the Karen Harvey Prize lecture.  Awardees will receive reimbursement after the meeting by submitting a request, with necessary receipts, to the Treasurer of the Division.

The SPD Student Committee (Gordon Emslie, Matthias Rempel, Lisa Upton)

Studentship Award numbers for the past few years:

Year	# of Awards
2024	18
2023	6
2022	13
2021	0*
2020	3
2019	5
2018	3
2017	6
2016	11
2015	9
2014	10
2013	10
2012	11
2011	10
2010	8
2009	8
2008	5
2007	10
2006	10
2005	6
2004	7
2003	14
2002	5
2001	6
2000	9

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SPD Student Poster Award

Starting in 2008, the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society has presented an award (plus a number of honorable mentions) to the best student poster presented at the Division’s annual meeting. A “student” is defined in this context as either:

1. any individual who has not yet been awarded the PhD degree, or
2. a recent (since January 1 of the year of the meeting) doctoral graduate whose work, as presented on their poster, was carried out wholly as part of earning that degree

The student must be the first author on the poster.

To be considered for the award, each interested student should indicate that they are a candidate on the abstract submission form and should place a “candidate” sticker (available at the meeting) on their poster. The award winner will be determined by the SPD Studentship Committee, based on input from an eminent set of jurists drawn from the solar physics community, based on criteria including:

• quality of the poster presentation;
• impact of the presented work on solar physics; and
• clarity of the oral discussion by the student presenter.

Year	Awardee	Poster
2019	Ruizhu Chen
2018	Emily Irene Mason
2017	Paul Wright
2016	Shaheda Begum Shaik
2015	Juan Camilo Buitrago-Casas
2014	Stephen Pinkerton
2013	Muzhou Lu
2012	Thomas A. Schad
2011	Qingrong Chen
2010	Oscar Olmedo
2009	Silvina Guidoni
2008	Laurel Rachmeler