Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry

Purpose: To recognize outstanding contributions in theoretical physical chemistry by a young investigator.

Nature: At the fall ACS meeting that immediately follows the announcement of the award the recipient will present their research in one of the PHYS symposia and be honored at the annual PHYS reception.  There is no honorarium associated with this award at this time because there is no sponsor.  

Eligibility: Eligibility is restricted to Physical Chemistry Division members who, at the time of the nomination, are in the first ten (10) years of their careers as independent researchers, following their postdoctoral research, if applicable. At the time of the nomination, currently serving members of the PHYS Division Executive Committee in any capacity, including subdivisions and councilors, as well as individuals who are up for election to these positions, are ineligible for nomination for this award until after their term of service. Any nominees that have served on the PHYS Exec Committee that prevented them from applying during their last year of eligibility will have their eligibility extended to the first twelve (12) years of their careers as independent researchers. Previous awardees of the JPC/PHYS Lectureships are not eligible. Donors are not excluded from being nominated for the award. To avoid conflicts of interest, the amounts that people donate will not be public knowledge and anyone with that knowledge will not serve on the awards selection committees.

Nomination Procedures: 

  1. A nomination letter of not more than 2 pages.
  2. At least two seconding letters with no page limit.
  3. The applicant’s CV.
  4. A list of the publications that the nominee is most proud. 
  5. A written assurance that, if selected, the nominee will attend the PHYS awards banquet and give their seminar at the ACS meeting in person. 
  6. Please make a copy or download, then complete, the nomination form.

Application Deadline: All materials should be sent electronically to acs-phys@colostate.edu. The deadline is November 7th each year. Please include the nominee’s name in the subject line of the e-mail.

Sponsor: None. 

Established in 2012, updated in 2019, revised in 2021 and 2022.

Contact: acs-phys@colostate.edu

Self-nominations will not be accepted.

Carryover: Nominations from previous years do not carry over for this award.