Nominations are closed for 2018.

The DPS sponsors five prizes:

The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize [1] honors outstanding contributions to the field of planetary science.

The Harold C. Urey Prize [2] recognizes outstanding achievement in planetary research by a young scientist.

The Harold Masursky Award [3] acknowledges outstanding service to planetary science and exploration.

The Carl Sagan Medal [4] recognizes and honors outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public.

The Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award [5] recognizes and stimulates distinguished popular writing on planetary sciences.

Previous Winners

	Kuiper Prize	Urey Prize	Masursky Award	Sagan Medal	Eberhart Award
2018 [6]	Julio Ángel Fernández Alves	Francesca DeMeo	Faith Vilas	Bonnie J. Buratti	Alexandra Witze
2017 [7]	Margaret Kivelson	Bethany Ehlmann	Louise Prockter	Megan Schwamb	Josh Sokol
				Henry Throop
2016 [8]	Stanton Peale	Leigh Fletcher	Mark Sykes	Yong-Chun Zheng	Nadia Drake
2015 [9]	Yuk Yung	Geronimo Villanueva	Christina Richey	Dan Durda	Stephen Battersby
2014 [10]	Peter Gierasch	Matija Cuk	Athena Coustenis	Guy Consolmagno	James Oberg
2013 [11]	Joseph Veverka	Anders Johansen	Ronald Greeley	Donald K. Yeomans	Richard A. Kerr
2012 [12]	Darrell Strobel	Alberto Fairen	Susan Niebur	Patrick Michel	Michael Carroll
2011 [13]	William Ward	Eric B. Ford	Benton C. Clark III	James Bell	Emily Lakdawalla
2010 [14]	Jeffrey N. Cuzzi	Jonathan J. Fortney	Alan Tokunaga	Carolyn C. Porco	George Musser
2009 [15]	Tobias C. Owen	Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay	no award	Steven W. Squyres	J. Kelly Beatty
2008 [16]	Michael A'Hearn	no award	Jon D. Giorgini	G. Jeffrey Taylor
2007 [17]	Andrew P. Ingersoll	Francis Nimmo	Tom Gehrels	no award
2006 [18]	Dale P. Cruikshank	Tristan Guillot	Gentry Lee	David H. Grinspoon
2005 [19]	William Hubbard	David Nesvorny	J. Kelly Beatty	Rosaly Lopes
2004 [20]	Carle M. Pieters	Jean-Luc Margot	Alexander Basilevsky	David Morrison
2003 [21]	Steven J. Ostro	Robin M. Canup	Reta F. Beebe	no award
2002 [22]	Eberhard Grün	Brett J. Gladman	no award	Heidi B. Hammel
2001 [23]	Bruce Hapke	Michael Brown	no award	Andre Brahic
2000 [24]	Conway B. Leovy	Alessandro Morbidelli	George E. Brown, Jr.	Larry A. Lebofsky
1999	Armand H. Delsemme	Douglas P. Hamilton	Wesley T. Huntress	Clark R. Chapman
1998	Carl E. Sagan	Erik I. Asphaug	Jurgen H. Rahe	William K. Hartmann
1997	Irwin I. Shapiro	Renu Malhotra	John T. Trauger
1996	Barney J. Conrath	Heidi B. Hammel	William Quaide
1995	Michael J. Belton	Emmanuel Lellouch	William Brunk
1994	James A. Van Allen	Karen J. Meech	Joesph A. Burns
1993	James R. Arnold	Roger V. Yelle	Mildred S. Matthews
1992	Peter Goldreich	Jack J. Lissauer	Harlan J. Smith
1991	Edward Anders	Richard P. Binzel	Carl Sagan
1990	Viktor S. Safronov	David J. Tholen
1989	James B. Pollack	Chris P. McKay
1988	Rudolf A. Hanel	Jonathan I. Lunine
1987	Donald M. Hunten	Steve W. Squyres
1986	George W. Wetherill	Jack L. Wisdom
1985	Fred L. Whipple	Larry W. Esposito
1984	Eugene M. Shoemaker	David J. Stevenson

 

Nomination

All DPS members are encouraged to submit nominations for DPS prizes.

A complete nomination submitted by the deadline will be considered by the Prize subcommittee for 3 years (i.e. for this year's award, next year's award, and the year after that), or for the duration of a candidate's eligibility, whichever is less. Please fill out the nomination form [25], and it will be submitted to the prize committee.

The Eberhart Award has different rules and procedures than the other DPS Prizes, please see its page [5] for more information.

 

Prize Subcommittee Rules and Procedures

Selection Procedure

The final responsibility for determining the frequency of prizes and for selecting the recipients lies with the DPS Committee. The Prize Subcommittee assists the Committee in selecting recipients by reviewing all nominations received, verifying eligibility, and preparing a slate of up to three candidates for each award.

Anyone (except DPS Officers, Committee members and Prize subcommittee members) may submit a nomination. The Prize Subcommittee also may solicit nominations from the DPS membership or the scientific community at large. A completed nomination will be retained and considered by the Prize Subcommittee for three years, or as long as the nominee is eligible, whichever is less. Past nominees may be re-nominated after the expiration of a prior nomination.

Though DPS Prizes are primarily intended to honor living people, a posthumous nomination (except for the Sagan Medal) may be submitted within the nomination period containing the first anniversary of the date of death of the nominee, and will be considered for three years, or in the case of the Urey Prize, up to three years until the nominee would have reached the age limit as specified for living recipients. Posthumous nominations are not renewable. Only living nominees will be considered for the Sagan Medal.

All the nominations and selection procedures will be carried out in a confidential manner.

Prior to the annual meeting of the DPS, the Prize Subcommittee shall provide the DPS Committee with an ordered slate of not less than three choices for each prize, unless there are fewer than three valid nominations for a prize, in which case all valid nominations shall be included in the slate. One of the choices may be a recommendation for no award, which may be placed in any order in the slate of choices. The Subcommittee shall also provide the DPS Committee with all documentation supporting each nominee on the slate.

Final selection, or the choice not to make an award, will be made by the DPS Committee. At an appropriate time, the prize and award recipients will be publically announced through the DPS Press Officer.

The Eberhart Award [5] has different rules and procedures than the other DPS Prizes, please see its page for more information.

 

Prize Details

For Prize details, see individual listings (Kuiper Prize [1], Urey Prize [2], Masursky Award [3], Sagan Medal [4], Eberhart Award [5]).

 

Prize Subcommittee Membership

The DPS Prize Subcommittee consists of five members.  The procedure for appointing new subcommittee members and lists of current and past members can be found here [26].

 

Giving

If you would like to donate to support the DPS prizes, please go here [27].  You will be redirected to the AAS member website.