View Award Winners
Kuriki Award for Young Professionals
About the Kuriki Award
A. Description
The “Kuriki Award for Young Professionals” (Kuriki Award) is to be presented at each International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC) starting in 2017 both to acknowledge the contributions of a promising young professional in the field of Electric Propulsion (EP) and to encourage continued efforts in the field. Qualified candidates can be nominated by any non-candidate Electric Rocket Propulsion Society (ERPS) member and the award selection will be based on the evaluation of the body of work of the candidate as judged by a senior panel appointed by the ERPS Board of Directors. The Kuriki Award is in honor of the extensive contributions that Dr. Kuriki made to the field of EP and to ERPS governance.
B. Administration
Prior to each IEPC, the ERPS Board of Directors (BOD) will appoint a Chairman to lead the Kuriki Award selection process. The Chairman may be a member of the ERPS Board of Directors or a member of one of the IEPC Working Committees. Based on inputs from the ERPS BOD, the Chairman will select a Kuriki Award Committee (KAC) to be composed of no less than three ERPS members (Chairman included). The ERPS President will give final approval for KAC membership. Upon selection, the KAC Chairman will submit the awardee’s name along with a KAC-generated Award Citation to the IEPC General Chairman and ERPS President using the process described in Section C below. The ERPS General Chairman will notify the awardee and present the Award at the ERPS Conference Banquet.
C. Application and the Selection Process
To qualify for Kuriki Award consideration, the potential candidate must be nominated by a member of the EP community at least three (3) months prior to the ERPS Conference. For consideration, the nominator must supply an application packet that includes:
1. A current, one page Curriculum Vitae including the candidate’s birth date (applicant must be under 35 years of age at the time of the IEPC) *Note that for Boston’s IEPC 2021 conference, the age criterion has been extended to 36 due to COVID.
2. A detailed description of the applicant’s contributions in the field of EP (not to exceed 5 pages); and
3. Up to five technical papers from relevant Journals and/or Conference Proceedings. The applicant must be the first author on at least one of these submissions and the submissions can include a technical paper at the IEPC (preferred).
Kuriki Award nominations must be submitted to the KAC Chairman at least three (3) months prior to the ERPS Conference at which the award is to be presented. The KAC Chairman will broadcast an announcement to the ERPS community at least nine (9) months prior to the IEPC and this announcement will be repeated six (6) months prior to the Conference. The IEPC abstract submission form will also have a short section describing the Kuriki Award and the nomination/selection process. The KAC Chairman will review the submissions for eligibility and send the packets from all eligible candidates to the KAC members within seven (7) days of receipt. Each KAC member will review and rate each packet on a scale of 100 using the evaluation criteria shown in Section D below. KAC member scores will be returned to the KAC Chairman within fourteen (14) days of receipt for consolidation and averaging. The KAC Chairman will send the averaged ratings to the KAC members within seven (7) days of receipt and schedule a final selection teleconference with the full KAC within seven (7) days of the distribution of the averaged scores. The teleconference agenda will include discussion/debate of the final selection if necessary (e.g. in the event of a tie) and development of the wording for the Award Citation. The KAC Chairman will deliver the name of the awardee and the Award Citation to the IEPC General Chairman and ERPS President for review and approval no less than thirty (30) days prior to the opening of the IEPC.
D. Award Evaluation Criteria (100 points total)
1. Technical merit of the contributions described in the submitted application packet (40 points): The term technical merit is intended to cover the scholarship of the presented work on new and unique theoretical and/or experimental findings associated with any electric propulsion concept of interest to the ERPS.
2. Potential Impacts of the body of work submitted with respect to furtherance of near- and/or far-term space application of EP technology (30 points): Potential impacts of interest include pioneering research to 1) open a new field of study (new device or technique), 2) address a significant issue associated with advancing EP technology, and/or 3) increase fundamental understanding of EP systems and their impacts on space systems.
3. Credentials (30 points): Points based on the quality of both the submitted Curriculum Vitae and technical publications.
E. Award Value
The Kuriki Award provides a stipend of $1000.00 paid directly to the award winner by check at the IEPC Banquet along with a framed certificate bearing the award citation and signed by both the IEPC General Chairman and the ERPS President.
