Distinguished Neurotoxicologist Award Criteria and Process for Selection”:

  1. Is the nominee a member or retired member of the NTSS?
  2. Are there two letters from Full members of SOT, at least one of whom is a member of NTSS?
  3. Is at least one of the nominators from a different institution than the nominee?
  4. Does the nomination letter describe the scientific, regulatory or service contributions of the nominee and the impact of the contributions to the field of Neurotoxicology? Only one of these criteria must be fulfilled for nomination, though all contributions across these areas can be considered as part of the award decision.
  5. Scientific: Has deeply or broadly enrich understanding of mechanisms and role of toxicants or other environmental factors on the nervous system?; OR
  6. Regulatory: Has greatly influenced and improved the scientific basis for regulatory or risk/safety assessment decisions related to neurotoxicology? OR
  7. Service: Has remarkably enriched the community of neurotoxicologist to enhance communication, rigor, or intellectual pursuits in neurotoxicology
  8. Have the contributions occurred over a substantial period of time? (>15 years post-training)
  9. Has the nominee demonstrated leadership to neurotoxicology including involvement in NTSS or other meetings/organizations related to neurotoxicology (weighted value approximately 10–15%).

Process for soliciting and evaluating nominations:

  1. NTSS Awards Committee
  2. Three members of NTSS Full Member Leadership Team (selected amongst the last two Past-Presidents, Treasurer/Secretary, President-elect, Councilors) will be appointed by the President under the guidance of the Vice-President.
  3. Two additional NTSS members who are Full, Retired, or Emeritus members will be appointed by the above three-member committee. Consideration will also be given to previous awardees who may not be current members of NTSS.
  4. Ideally, committee members should represent diverse disciplines and sectors most relevant for reviewing the nominees.
  5. Committee members will not include the current President or Vice-President during the year it will be announced; however they may serve as advisors to the process.
  6. Who can be nominated?
  7. Nominee must be a member, or retired member, of NTSS
  8. Current members of the Awards Committee can be nominated for an SOT Award, but they can’t actually receive the award while serving on the Awards Committee or for a year after their term on the Committee
  9. The Committee will not accept self-nominations.
  10. The NTSS will not inform the nominee of the decision, unless selected, but the nominator can decide whether to inform the nominee.
  11. Nominations are considered for 4 years, at which time the nomination needs to be resubmitted.
  12. Items needed in the application:
  13. The full package should not be longer than 6 pages (excluding the Curriculum vitae). Nominations may be sent to any member of the awards committee or the current President or Vice-President of NTSS.
  14. Letter of nomination from Full member of the Society of Toxicology
  15. Curriculum vitaeof nominee (8 pages max)
  16. Seconding letter from Full member of the Society of Toxicology
  17. At least one of the letters must be from a member of the NTSS
  18. Both letters should provide specific examples and documentation of the scientific contributions of the nominee; a publication list is not sufficient without analysis
  19. Upon selection of the Awardee, the nominator writes a short bio which will be published in the Newsletter and/or posted on the website.
  20. Key NTSS Award Dates/Timeline
  21. August: Announcement
  22. September–Dec 9: Awards Nominations Accepted
  23. January–February 9: Awards committee reviews and decides if an award will be made and to whom
  24. March: Award Recipients Honored at the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo
  25. 5-minute speech including sharing experience as a neurotoxicologist.
  1. Decision process
  2. Members of the award committee make the decision by February 9th of each year and inform the President and Vice-president. The decision to make an award is achieved by vote of the awards committee and should be unanimous (i.e. 5 of 5 committee members in favor). However, in the event of only a single dissenting vote against awarding (i.e. 4 of 5 committee members in favor), then the current President and Vice-President of NTSS may act unanimously to approve or disapprove the approval of the award. If only 3 or less of the 5 committee members are in favor of awarding, the award will not be made that year. However, the committee the following year may still act upon this nomination if within the 4 year time period.
  1. Notification process
  2. A member of the Awards Committee will contact the Full member who submitted the nomination and give them the option to notify the recipients. The NTSS President only contacts the nominee upon being informed that the person is aware that she/he has won.
  1. Frequency of awards
  2. An award does not need to be made each year. No more than one award is permitted in any single year.