Call for 2018 IPS Awards and Fellows Nominations
Manos Kitsonas, Awards Committee Chair
The IPS Awards Committee members are Kris McCall at Cernan Earth and Space Centerof Triton College() and Tatsuyuki Arai at Katsushika city museum Planetarium ().
Time has come to nominate people or institutions for the 2018 IPS Awards and Fellowships. The next IPS Awards will be given and Fellows named at the IPS Conference in Toulouse, France in early July 2018. The IPS Council will decide which persons or institutions will be honored at the next IPS Council meeting in St. Louis, USA, in October 2017. The decisions will be based on the Awards Committee presentations regarding each potential Awardee of Fellow candidate.
Nominations for the 2018 IPS Awards and Fellows must therefore reach the Awards Committee on time and in any case no later than the 1st of September 2017. Please send your nominations to my email address () and include the reasons why you think your nominee should be awarded or named an IPS Fellow. Also, feel free to contact fellow members of the Awards Committee and your IPS Affiliation representative in case you want to get more information regarding rules and procedure.
As you well know, the IPS Awards that require nominations from the members are the following:
1)The IPS Service Award. This, according to IPS Standing Rules “shall be bestowed, from time to time, by the Society upon an individual or institution whose presence and work in the planetarium field has been, through the years, an inspiration to the profession and its members.” Since 1982 there have been 23 people awarded with the IPS Service Award.
2)The IPS Technology and Innovation Award. This “shall be bestowed, from time to time, by the Society upon an individual whose technology and/or innovations in the planetarium field have been, through the years, utilized or replicated by other members and/or other planetariums.” So far, there have been 5persons awarded with theIPS Technology and Innovation Award.
For both these Awards the nominees must have a broad, deep and concrete effect in the profession and its development.
Deserving IPS members can also be named IPS Fellows and in order to be named the IPS Standing Rules state that “a member must have continuous active membership in good standing in IPS for at least five years and substantial contributions in at least two of the following respects:
1)Serving IPS in effective office, diligent and/or devoted committee work, and the organization of conferences and meetings.
2)Relevant and significant publications and/or conference presentations.
3)Cooperation with professional societies, organizations and groups which bring attention to the importance of planetariums’ existence.
4)The development of new methods in the planetarium field.”
So far, there have been 258 people named IPS Fellows.
I would like to encourage you to consider possible Awards or Fellows nominees not only from your region but from all over the world. More information regarding previous Awardees and Fellows can be found in the IPS Awards Committee web page (