Call for Nominations

The Dana Meadows Award of the System Dynamics Society is given annually for the best paper by a student presented at the annual System Dynamics Conference. Established in 2001, the prize celebrates and recognizes high quality student work in the field of system dynamics. In addition to the Award winner, several papers may be selected for honorable mention. The winner will receive a cash prize of $500 as well as conference registration plus travel expenses (up to a combined maximum of $700). Students are strongly encouraged to attend the conference and present their work. However, under exceptional circumstances the winner or honorable mentions may be recognized without attendance. A winner who is unable to attend will not receive travel or registration expenses.

For the purpose of the award, an eligible student is anyone who, at the time of writing the manuscript, is enrolled in an accredited program of study, in any subject and is not a previous winner of the Award. The paper can be co-authored with other eligible students. If such a co-authored paper is selected as the winner, the authors will share the prize equally. Papers may also be co-authored with a non-student (such as a faculty advisor or consultant) but only if accompanied by a statement from the advisor that the intellectual content arises from the student’s own work. In all such cases the student must appear as the first author and non-students do not receive a share of the prize. Any paper authored by an eligible student and accepted for the conference can be considered for the award, whether presented in a plenary, parallel, or poster session. Brevity is a virtue. Papers must not exceed 5,000 words and should adhere to general conference guidelines. However, essential documentation or model code can appear in a technical appendix without adding to the word count. Model-based papers must include a listing of the model either as a technical appendix or as a separate file in a text format (ASCII or pdf) .

Nomination Procedure  To be considered for the prize you should follow the self-nomination procedure when you submit your paper to the conference, or no later than the conference submission deadline. You will be asked to affirm that you meet the requirements for the prize and agree to the review terms. If your paper is co-authored, you will be asked to identify which authors are students. Non-student co-authors must each write a statement to the Society indicating that the student author(s) is/are responsible for the content of the paper. Scroll down to see a sample statement included below for reference.

The Dana Meadows Award is funded through an endowment established by the System Dynamics Society. The Society gratefully acknowledges the support of all those donors who have contributed to the fund and in particular Jane and Allen Boorstein who generously helped establish the award in 2001.

A Note About the Award

The Society’s Dana Meadows Award symbolizes the Society’s commitment to students in two ways. It brings recognition to the very best student work. It also honors, in an enduring way, the life and work of Dana Meadows.

Dana Meadows is remembered as an eloquent sustainability advocate and environmental writer. But she was also, and arguably foremost, a teacher -- one exceptionally committed to her students and their development not only intellectually but in all ways. Honoring Dana through this Award recognizes her work as an inspiring teacher and mentor of young people, and sets a standard for what good modeling is. The  Award will help develop the next generation of systems thinkers and modelers according to her ideals. Her unusually high level of integrity in all things extended to high standards for modeling, for documentation, and for exposing assumptions. The words of two of her (now distinguished) former students embody the spirit and intention of the  Award:

“On occasions when I might be tempted to cut corners in modeling work (what modeler hasn't faced these), envisioning Dana across the table, posing her gentle but piercing queries, was one of the things that helped keep me honest.”

“Dana knew better than most of us that the leverage points for changing a system often lie far from the symptoms of difficulty. She would understand that an application of system dynamics to issues apparently not connected to sustainability, including corporate applications, might very well promote her goals, not only her goals of creating a sustainable and just society but of promoting integrity and honesty in our analysis of problems, whatever and wherever they may be -- that is, in the way we create and test our models, mental and formal.”

To see a list of past Dana Meadows Award winners please click here.

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Sample Non-Student Co-author Statement

Email:  isdc@albany.edu
Fax:  +1 518 442 3398
Post: 

Attn:  Dana Meadows Award Committee
System Dynamics Society
Milne 300, University at Albany
Albany, NY  12222  USA

Dear Committee Members,

With regard to submission # _________ titled "__________________________________" for which I am listed as an author:

I certify that (list all qualified student authors here) is/are solely responsible for the intellectual content of this paper and is/are qualified to receive the Dana Meadows Award for this work. I declare that the intellectual content of this paper derives from the work of the student(s) and not mine.

Signed:

Last edited by JP 3/15/08

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