Message from the President

Dear Membership of the SOR:

The following ballot results from the examination of the SOR Rules concerning Awards by a committee appointed by SOR President Greg McKenna. The committee was headed by Gerry Fuller who teamed with Faith Morrison and Eric Shaqfeh and they recommended to the Executive committee several modifications to the rules. These were voted by the Executive Committee to be brought as a single ballot to be voted upon by the membership. The recommended changes are clarifications and amendments to the Society Awards: The Bingham Medal, the Publication Award, and the Metzner Award. For the Bingham Medal, in order to make it clear that this is truly an award open to all Rheology Investigators world-wide, we have voted to strike the phrase "who is a resident of the North American Continent or a member of The Society". Hence the new Article VII, Section 1 of the Rules is to read

The Bingham Medal shall be awarded, usually on an annual basis, but in any event not more often, to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of rheology. A monetary prize of an amount determined by the Executive Committee, subject to the provision that this amount may not be adjusted more than twice in any five-year period, shall accompany the medal. The Bingham Award Committee (provided for in Section 2 of this ARTICLE) shall make selection of the medalist, subject to approval by the Executive Committee. The Bingham Medal shall be presented at the Annual Meeting.

The committee also recommended modifying the Publication Award described in Section 3 of Article VII of the Rules to read:

The Editor or a designated replacement, two Members-at-Large of the Executive Committee chosen by the President, and at least one member appointed annually by the Editor shall serve as the Journal Publication Award Committee. The Chair of the Committee shall be the Editor or a member appointed by the Editor. The Journal Publication Award Committee shall, annually, select for special recognition at the Annual Meeting the best paper published in the journals of The Society during the preceding two years. A monetary award may accompany the Journal Publication Award at the discretion of the Executive Committee subject to the provision that this amount may not be adjusted more than twice in any five-year period.

This change brings the Rules into agreement with the current practice used in choosing the Publication Award recipient(s).

The third change relates to the Metzner Award for early career investigators. This award has been made to multiple very good young researchers already, but has not been included in the SOR Rules; rather it is in a document that was published some time ago in the Bulletin of the SOR because it was to be sort of an experiment. The committee on awards recommended to the Executive Committee that this be put into the Rules with some minor changes to the award. It would now go to investigators within 12 years of the terminal degree rather than to persons under 35 years of age. This is an addition to Article VII of the Rules and would read as follows:

Section 5

The Arthur B. Metzner Early Career Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of rheology by a young person. It shall be given, usually on an annual basis, but in any event not more often. The year of a nominee's terminal degree cannot be earlier than the twelfth year prior to the year of the award for which he/she is a candidate. A monetary prize of an amount determined by the Executive Committee, subject to the provision that this amount may not be adjusted more than twice in any five-year period, shall accompany the award. The Metzner Award Committee (provided for in Section 6 of this ARTICLE) shall make selection of the Awardee, subject to approval by the Executive Committee. The Metzner Award shall be presented at the Annual Meeting.

Section 6

The President shall, each year, appoint sufficient members for staggered terms of three years to The Metzner Award Committee, such that The Committee is composed of five persons; members may not be appointed to consecutive terms. In addition, the President shall appoint one of the five members to act as Chair of The Committee for that year. The guidelines to be used for selection of an awardee by The Committee shall be submitted by the Chair of The Metzner Award Committee to the Executive Committee for approval if such guidelines differ from the guidelines previously approved.

You are invited to vote for these amendments to the Rules of the SOR. They are endorsed by your Executive Committee.

Sincerely,

Greg McKenna
President, SOR

Per ARTICLE VIII of the Rules of the SOR, the voting site will be closed after 17 July 2014.