Call for Submissions

Awarded by

The American Association of State Climatologists (AASC)

Application Information

Purpose
The American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) is pleased to announce the 2026 competition for the New Scientist Award in Applied Climatology – to be awarded to a recent recipient of the Master’s or Ph.D. degree in North America or the U.S. Territories whose research is considered significant to applied climatology.

The Award
The presentation will bestow a plaque and a cash award of $1000 to the winning nominee. The award also includes paid attendance to the Annual Meeting of the AASC in Fairbanks, AK, June 24-26, 2026, that includes out-of-pocket travel expenses up to $1000 and waiving of the conference registration fee.

Eligibility
To be considered for this AASC award, a nominee’s Master’s or Ph.D. degree must have been awarded from a university in North America or one of the U.S. Territories within five calendar years prior to the award submission date (Friday, March 27th, 2026). The nominee must have a galley-proof manuscript, or a published journal article that may be derived from thesis or dissertation work but may also be derived from unrelated post-degree work. The candidate must be the first author on the paper submitted. Dissertations and theses per se are not eligible for consideration. AASC encourages submissions that demonstrate the analysis of climate data and its application to understanding or informing decisions related to aviation, agriculture, biology, ecology, economics, engineering, health, natural hazards, resource management, or other topics. Applicants may have received their graduate degree in any scientific field.

Nominations/Submissions
Nominations are solicited by, or on behalf of, graduates (or their sponsors) of universities in North America and the U.S. Territories. The nominator can be a mentor (e.g., State Climatologist, Regional Climatologist, Department Chair, or professional colleague), or the applicant can self-nominate. An original letter of nomination should be written and submitted, either by the nominating party or the nominee, which discusses the extent of independence exhibited by the nominee in the choice and execution of the research, and the relevance of the work to applied climatology. Electronic submission of the research (as published in a refereed journal or in galley-proof format) must accompany the nomination, and the research must be “applied” climatology. Please submit only one article per nominee. Nominations received for the current year’s competition remain under consideration for two additional calendar years, provided the eligibility criteria are met.

Due Date
E-mail nomination letters and research papers are to be submitted by Midnight PDT, Friday, March 27th, 2026 to: chris.daly@oregonstate.edu. Questions regarding eligibility or submissions can also be directed to this address.

Selection
The AASC Awards Committee has been appointed by the AASC Executive Committee to review all eligible nominations and select the award recipient.  If, in the opinion of the Committee, none of the nominees’ publications or manuscripts are sufficiently outstanding, or if they are not in the area of ‘applied’ climatology, the AASC New Scientist Award in Applied Climatology will not be awarded for this year. If an award recipient is selected, they will be notified by Friday, April 10, 2026. The award recipient will be invited to deliver a presentation of their applied climatology research at the Annual Meeting of the AASC in Fairbanks, AK, June 22-24, and announcement of their selection for this award will be featured in AASC communications.

Evaluation Criteria
Nominations and manuscripts submitted for the AASC New Scientist Award in Applied Climatology will be evaluated based on these considerations:

1. Does the research make a significant contribution to applied climatology (yes/no)?

From the AMS Glossary:  
Applied climatology – The scientific analysis of climatic data in the light of a useful application for an operational purpose. “Operational” is interpreted as any specialized endeavor within such as industrial, manufacturing, agricultural, or technological pursuits (after Landsberg and Jacobs 1951). This is the general term for all such work and includes agricultural climatology, aviation climatology, bioclimatology, industrial climatology, and others.

2. If #1 is “Yes” then the following scoring system will be applied:

● Clarity of the Manuscript (0 to 15 points)
● Organization (0 to 10 points)
● Figure Quality (0 to 10 points)
● Creativity (0 to 20 points)
● Scientific Merit (0 to 25 points)
● Applied climatological nature of the work (0 to 20 points)