Easterfield Award
The Easterfield award takes the form of a medal was donated by the Royal Institute of Chemistry (now the Royal Society of Chemistry) in honour of the late Sir Thomas Hill Easterfield KBE MZ (Cantab) PhD (Wurzburg) FRSNZ FRIC HonFNZIC who was well known for his contribution in the field of chemistry and will be remembered particularly for the inspiration and encouragement he gave his students during the many years he was Professor of Chemistry at Victoria University College and for his infectious enthusiasm for chemical research. Sir Thomas was the first chairman of the New Zealand section of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and also one of the early Presidents of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC). It is therefore fitting and in accordance with the wishes of the Council of the Royal Society of Chemistry that the two should act in association.
Criteria
Candidates must have no more than 12 years of full-time equivalent professional experience since completing their most recent relevant qualification of a BSc, BSc(Hons), MSc or PhD Degree, or the equivalent, on 30 June in the year of their application for consideration for the award.
- The award will be open to all chemists in New Zealand whether or not they are members of the Royal Society of Chemistry or the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.
- The major portion of the candidate’s research work submitted must have been carried out in New Zealand as judged by the research work published during the twelve (12) years immediately preceding the award.
- No person may be awarded the Easterfield Award more than once.
- The award winner will be requested to deliver a lecture on the subject of her/his research at an NZIC conference (or on some other suitable occasion) and will carry out a short lecture tour, hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry, in the United Kingdom.
- The award shall be made biennially and presented to the successful candidate on the occasion of her/his lecture.
- The NZIC Council reserves the right to make no award in any year if the standard of work is not of sufficient merit.
- Expenses necessarily incurred by the award winner in connection with the delivery of his/her lecture(s) (up to a total of NZD 3500) will be covered by the NZIC.
- Unless otherwise agreed to by NZIC Council, the overseas lecture tour to the UK hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry must be taken up within two years of the award being made or the opportunity will lapse.
Application process
Applications for this award containing the information below must be received in electronic format by the NZIC Administration (nzic.office@gmail.com) by the 30th June in the year of the award.
Note that letters of support are NOT required.
- A statement which outlines the nominee’s contributions to chemistry and the impact of the nominee’s work.
- A curriculum vitae (CV).
- Five (5) nominated papers. Each paper should be accompanied by a short (250 words) summary indicating the importance and impact of the work and describing the relative contributions from all authors. (The statements are similar to those required for the NZ performance based research fund (PBRF) process.)
Previous recipients:
- 2005 Dr Emily Parker (Massey)
- 2007 Dr Jadranka Travis-Sejdic (Auckland)
- 2009 Dr Richard Tilley (Victoria, Wellington)
- 2011 Dr Bridget Stocker (Malaghan Institute, Wellington)
- 2013 Dr James Crowley (Otago)
- 2015 Dr Justin Hodgkiss (Victoria, Wellington)
- 2017 Dr Sally Gaw (Canterbury)
- 2019 Dr Bill Hawkins (Otago)