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The William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement (nominations due annually September 15)

Since 1950, the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement has been awarded annually to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to scientific research and has demonstrated an ability to communicate the significance of this research to scientists in other disciplines.

The prize consists of a certificate of award, a Steuben glass sculpture and $5,000. In addition, each recipient is asked to designate a younger scholar, usually working in the same field, to receive a $5,000 Grant-in-Aid of Research award from the Procter Prize Fund. Presentation of the Procter Prize is traditionally a principal event at Sigma Xi's annual meeting, where the recipient delivers the Procter Prize Address.

All nominations should be submitted by email or hard copy to:

Fuller Bazer, Executive Director
Texas A&M University Chapter of Sigma Xi
312 Williams Administration Building
MS 1112
College Station, TX 77843-1112

SigmaXi@tamu.edu

Nominations
The deadline for submission of nomination materials is September 15 annually.

Nominations for the William Procter Prize should include:

A current curriculum vita that follows the Sigma Xi Criteria for
Curricula Vitae
A letter of nomination that addresses the following:
1. The impact of the nominee's work on the current state of physical, biological, mathematical, engineering or social and behavioral sciences - how it has resulted in new approaches, new ways of thinking, or led to especially promising areas of inquiry.
2. Ways in which the scientific community has recognized these accomplishments.
3. Influence on education through publications, teaching activities, outreach, mentoring, etc.
4. Ability of the nominee to give an address at the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting that is dynamic, engaging, and readily understood by scientists across the disciplines.
One or two additional letters of support of no more than one page each.

William Procter
William Procter, an heir of one of the founders of the Procter and Gamble Company, retired from a profitable investment business in 1920 to study entomology at Columbia University. Soon afterward he built a field laboratory on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, began publishing his work and gained a reputation as a distinguished natural scientist. Active in Sigma Xi and its affiliated organization, the Research Society of America (RESA), Procter endowed the award that bears his name in 1950, the year before he died. Karl T. Compton, then Massachusetts Institute of Technology president and RESA chairman, was its first recipient. RESA merged with Sigma Xi in 1974.

William Procter Prize Recipients

2008 Charles Elachi

2007 Stuart L. Pimm

2006 Susan L. Lindquist

2005 Bjarne Stroustrup

2004 Murray Gell-Mann

2003 Darleane Hoffman

2002 Benoit Mandelbrot

2001 Alexander Rich

2000 Francisco Ayala

1999 Lynn Margulis

1998 Carl Djerassi