Nominations are now being accepted for the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award, and the NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research. The nomination deadline for all four prizes is April 1, 2022.

These prizes recognize scientists and engineers from academia, industry and the public sector for their exceptional work and contributions to research and training in a natural sciences and engineering discipline.

NSERC encourages a diverse pool of nominees to reflect the breadth of excellence in Canada’s research ecosystem. As such, some changes have recently been made to the prizes’ literature and nomination process as a first step to celebrate equity, diversity and inclusion among recipients. Diversity takes many forms and is not only understood in terms of individual identity but also research area, institution size, region, etc.

In nominating a person or a team, please consider:

• Including various contributions to research in addition to the nominee’s research excellence and influence in their field. This could include: transfer of knowledge, training and mentoring of highly qualified personnel, or communication of research to non-specialist audiences.
• Encouraging your colleagues to nominate someone as there can be more than one nomination per institution.
• Thinking broadly before nominating to ensure diverse candidacies are considered.
• Asking someone to nominate you.

Prize recipients are role models for the research community and for future scientists and engineers. We encourage you to share this call for nominations broadly and inclusively in your networks.

See below for detailed description of each prize.

The Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering recognizes outstanding Canadian teams from different disciplines who came together to engage in research drawing on their combined knowledge and skills, and produced a record of excellent achievements in the natural sciences and engineering.

The Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering is awarded annually for both the sustained excellence and overall influence of research work conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering.

The NSERC John C. Polanyi Award honours an individual or team whose Canadian-based research has led to a recent outstanding advance in the natural sciences or engineering.

Newly announced in 2020, the NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research honours an individual or team whose research in Canada has led to exceptional benefits for Canadians.