Outside the Box: Professor-Funded Science Award

Are awards and prizes in science a good thing?

Or do they reward a tiny subpopulation of individuals at the expense of the community?

On the whole I believe that awards for are a positive thing for the scientific world.

They draw attention to individuals that make a disproportionate positive difference.

In fact, I feel so strongly about this that in my field of stem cells I personally fund an annual award called the Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. This is now the third year that I have been doing this award. In the first two years of the award, the winner received not only recognition, but also a $1,000 cash prize that I fund out of my own pocket. This year I've boosted that prize to $2,000. This is a lot of money to me personally, but I feel so strongly that we need to recognize positive risk-takers in my field that it is worth it me.

The first winner of the award in 2012 was patient advocate, Roman Reed, while last year in 2013 the winner was Dr. Elena Cattaneo who is a scientist and was also appointed a national Senator in Italy.

Above is a video of me explaining a couple years back why I'm doing this award and the type of candidate I'm looking for to the winner.

The way this Award process works is I have an open period of nominations and then I do an Internet poll whereby readers of my blog can vote for their favorite candidate. The top 12 vote getters are finalists from which I choose the winner.

The2014 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award process is ongoing now with voting onthe nominees to end at midnight on October 22. You can vote here.

Also, I'd be curious of your thoughts more generally on a scientist who personally funds an award in their field.

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