Prizes

The 2024 prize applications will be due April 15, 2024. 

Contents

• DPS-Sponsored Prizes

• Previous Winners

• Nomination

• Prize Subcommittee Rules and Procedures

• Prize Subcommittee Membership

DPS-Sponsored Prizes

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

The Claudia J. Alexander Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in planetary research by a mid-career scientist.

The Harold C. Urey Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in planetary research by an early-career scientist.

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

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

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

Previous Winners

	Kuiper Prize	Urey Prize	Masursky Award	Sagan Medal	Eberhart Award	Alexander Prize
2023	William B. McKinnon	Quanzhi Ye	Dale Cruikshank	Tracy Becker	Marina Koren	Amy Simon
2022	Bonnie Buratti	Juan Lora	Jim Green	Caleb Scharf	Michael Greshko	Martha Scott Gilmore
2021	Therese Encrenaz	Lynnae Quick	Mark Showalter	Nicolle Zellner	Camille Carlisle	Elizabeth Turtle
				Adam Frank
2020	Wing-Huen Ip	Rebekah Dawson	Heidi Hammel	Ray Jayawardhana	Christopher Crockett
2019	Maria Zuber	Kelsi Singer	Phil Nicholson	Carrie Nugent	Rebecca Boyle
2018	Julio Ángel Fernández Alves	Francesca DeMeo	Faith Vilas	Bonnie J. Buratti	Alexandra Witze
2017	Margaret Kivelson	Bethany Ehlmann	Louise Prockter	Megan Schwamb	Josh Sokol
				Henry Throop
2016	Stanton Peale	Leigh Fletcher	Mark Sykes	Yong-Chun Zheng	Nadia Drake
2015	Yuk Yung	Geronimo Villanueva	Christina Richey	Dan Durda	Stephen Battersby
2014	Peter Gierasch	Matija Cuk	Athena Coustenis	Guy Consolmagno	James Oberg
2013	Joseph Veverka	Anders Johansen	Ronald Greeley	Donald K. Yeomans	Richard A. Kerr
2012	Darrell Strobel	Alberto Fairen	Susan Niebur	Patrick Michel	Michael Carroll
2011	William Ward	Eric B. Ford	Benton C. Clark III	James Bell	Emily Lakdawalla
2010	Jeffrey N. Cuzzi	Jonathan J. Fortney	Alan Tokunaga	Carolyn C. Porco	George Musser
2009	Tobias C. Owen	Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay	no award	Steven W. Squyres	J. Kelly Beatty
2008	Michael A’Hearn	no award	Jon D. Giorgini	G. Jeffrey Taylor
2007	Andrew P. Ingersoll	Francis Nimmo	Tom Gehrels	no award
2006	Dale P. Cruikshank	Tristan Guillot	Gentry Lee	David H. Grinspoon
2005	William Hubbard	David Nesvorny	J. Kelly Beatty	Rosaly Lopes
2004	Carle M. Pieters	Jean-Luc Margot	Alexander Basilevsky	David Morrison
2003	Steven J. Ostro	Robin M. Canup	Reta F. Beebe	no award
2002	Eberhard Grün	Brett J. Gladman	no award	Heidi B. Hammel
2001	Bruce Hapke	Michael Brown	no award	Andre Brahic
2000	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

The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society awards its named prizes annually (or less frequently).

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

For purposes of these prizes, planetary science shall be understood to refer to the multidisciplinary study of our Solar System, as well as other planetary systems, excluding work dealing primarily with the Sun, Earth, or other stars.

The final responsibility for determining the award frequency and for selecting the recipients lies with the DPS Committee.

Anyone (except DPS Officers, Committee members and Prize Subcommittee members, as defined in the DPS Bylaws) may submit a nomination.

DPS officers, DPS Committee members, and members of the DPS Prize Subcommittee may not submit nominations or supporting letters. Sitting members of the DPS Prize Subcommittee are not eligible for awards. Such nominations will be considered submitted once that member has rotated off the Subcommittee.

The DPS expects that a candidate for nomination follows the AAS Code of Ethics and actively promotes AAS core values.

A complete nomination submitted by the deadline will be considered by the Prize Subcommittee for three (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.  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.  In the case of the Urey Prize, the nominee will be considered for three years, or until the nominee would have reached the time limit following receipt of the Ph.D. as specified for living recipients, whichever is smaller. Posthumous nominations are not renewable. Only living nominees will be considered for the Sagan Medal.

In the case of a posthumous recipient, there generally will be no cash award, but reasonable travel expenses will be offered for an appropriate survivor to attend the DPS meeting and receive the prize certificate and citation.

Please fill out the nomination form, and it will be submitted to the Prize Subcommittee.

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

Prize Subcommittee Rules and Procedures

Selection Procedure

The Prize Subcommittee assists the DPS Committee in selecting recipients by reviewing all nominations received, verifying eligibility, and preparing a slate of approximately three candidates for each award.

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 approximately three choices for each prize, unless there are fewer than two 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 publicly announced through the DPS Press Officer.

The Eberhart Award 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, Alexander Prize, Urey Prize, Masursky Award, Sagan Medal, Eberhart Award).

Prize Subcommittee Membership

The DPS Prize Subcommittee nominally consists of seven members.  The procedure for appointing new subcommittee members and lists of current and past members can be found here.