The awards are open to all students who are currently enrolled in a U.S. institution, at any degree level in the field of planetary geosciences. Recent graduates, pre-college students, and postdoctoral fellows are not eligible. Students who have previously won a "best presentation" award as a graduate student are not eligible to compete again in either category. Students who have won a "best presentation" award as an undergraduate are not eligible to compete again in either category as an undergraduate but are eligible to compete in either category as a graduate student. Students who have won honorable mention award(s) as either a graduate or undergraduate student in either category are eligible to compete again.

Only one abstract per student will be considered for a "best presentation" award in each year. The student must be the senior author of the abstract, and a minimum of 50% of the material in the abstract must not have been previously presented at another meeting. Judging will be based on both the written abstract and the presentation.

To apply for the award, students MUST complete the Dwornik application form. Applicants should fill in the form electronically, print it out, get their advisor's signature, then do one of the following:

1. FAX the print out containing the advisor's signature to Ingrid Dudley at LPI at 281-486-2125.
2. Scan the print out containing the advisor signature and save it as a new PDF. Then email the file to Ingrid Dudley at idudley@hou.usra.edu.

For LPSC 2013, the form is due on January 9, 2013, one day after the LPSC 2013 abstract deadline which is January 8, 2013. The form must include the LPI abstract number of the submitted abstract for which the student will be judged for the award. The student's advisor must manually sign the form (no digital signatures) and is required to confirm the student's standing and eligibility.

Winners will be notified approximately one month after LPSC. They will be announced at the annual Planetary Geology Division business meeting at that year's Geological Society of America; and they will be introduced and awarded their prizes at the following years' LPSC. A cash award of $500 and a plaque will be presented to the graduate student best oral presentation and the graduate student best poster presentation. A cash award of $250 and a plaque will be presented to the undergraduate student best oral presentation and the undergraduate student best poster presentation. Plaques will be presented to honorable mention winner(s) in each category. If the judges conclude that there is not a deserving presentation in a given category, there will not be an award given in that category.

The winners of the previous year's Dwornik competition will be honored in the current year's LPSC Monday afternoon plenary session.

Photo courtesy of Jim Zimbelman, 2010

Stephen E. Dwornik worked for NASA's Lunar and Planetary Programs Division of the Office of Space Science and Applications from 1965 to 1967. In 1968, he became Chief of Planetology in the Planetary Programs Division of the Office of Space Science, a position he held until 1976, when he served as Chief of Planetary Geology in the same division and office until 1979. At NASA, he was one of the first to recognize that the precision engineered spacecraft that were being launched to the planets were nothing more than engineering experiements without scientific analysis of the returned data. That became his job—to find the best scientists to interpret the data returned from these missions and ultimately to understand the geologic development of the planets.

As Chief of Planetology and then Chief of Planetary Geology, he organized and managed a research program that lasted more than a dozen years, ensuring that NASA grants would be given to investigators who were doing interesting planetary research. The annual PGPI (Planetary Geology Principal Investigators) meeting that he organized became an early proving and training ground for planetary geology researchers and their students. His career spanned the time period from Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo to Mariner, Viking, and Voyager. Those who started with his monetary support are now the leading figures and founding members of the field of planetary geoscience, and graduate students whose work was funded by these grants became the second generation of planetary geoscientists.

After retiring from NASA, he worked for Ball Aerospace for a number of years, and then spent a decade organizing an annual space exploration-related elderhostel in association with William and Mary College. Dwornik was a son of Polish and Ukrainian immigrants, served during World War II, and felt a great debt of gratitude to the U.S. As such, he was interested in encouraging more U.S. students to enter the field of planetary science. In the 1970s very few U.S. students were studying planetary science, and Dwornik was concerned. In 1991, he made an endowment to the Geological Society of America specifically to award U.S. students in planetary geoscience. The awards are managed by the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America; and have been broadened by the PGD to include all aspects of planetary science submitted to the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Steve Dwornik and his wife currently live in the Washington D.C. area.

Note: This short biography was compiled by Jayne Aubele from informal notes supplied by Ted Maxwell, Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Boyce, University of Hawaii, and NASA’s Historical Archives.

Initially, in 1991, the Planetary Geology Division presented awards for best oral presentation at both the LPSC and GSA annual meetings. Beginning in 1992 awards were given only for best oral presentation at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference and honorable mention citations were first awarded. Awards for poster presentations at LPSC were initiated by the Planetary Geology Division in 1993. After realizing that an increasing number of undergraduate students were applying for the award, the Planetary Geology Division began separate award categories for Best Graduate and Best Undergraduate oral and poster presentations in 2009. The Dwornik Awards have become the preeminent award for U.S. graduate and undergraduate students in planetary science.

The Award is limited to undergraduate and graduate students who are first authors of a papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals during a specific calendar year. The first author must have been a registered student at a degree awarding institution at the time the paper was submitted to the publishing journal. Two letters of certification are required: (1) From the student's department head attesting that the individual was a student at the time of paper submission to the publishing journal; (2) From the student's advisor detailing the portion of the work done by the student and contributed by others including the advisor. Planetary science papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals published in English only will be considered for this award. Students of Selection Committee members are not eligible for the Award.

Papers will be considered for the Award by nomination to the Selection Committee. Committee members, full members of the Geological Society of America, full members of the Meteoritical Society, or full members of any of their associated societies may make nominations. The nomination may be addressed to the Secretaries of either the Planetary Geology Division of the GSA or the Meteoritical Society, who will forward the nominations to the Chair of the Selection Committee. (Members of the Selection Committee may make nominations directly to the Chair of the Committee.)

Alternatively, nominations can be made directly to the Chair of the Selection Committee. Submissions for consideration should be sent (as PDF documents) by email to: Dr. Mario Trieloff, Mario.Trieloff@geow.uni-heidelberg.de. Submissions also may be sent by regular mail to:

Dr. Mario Trieloff
Research Group "Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry"
Institut für Geowissenschaften der Universität Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 234-236
4th floor, Room no. 404
69120 Heidelberg
Germany

Questions or inquiries may be directed to Dr. Mario Trieloff at: Mario.Trieloff@geow.uni-heidelberg.de

The deadline for nominations is January 31 each year. The Selection Committee will review nominated papers published during the previous calendar year, and create a short list by the end of February. Committee members will read the short list and make their rankings in time for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in mid-March. The Committee will meet at LPSC and settle on their final recommendations. At least one month before the Meteoritical Council gathers at the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society, the Committee Chair will send a report of the recommendation to the two Societies. Included in the report will be the abstract of the paper and an explanation of why the paper is being recommended for the Award.

The Meteoritical Society provides a check for $500.00 U.S., and sends it directly to the recipient after notifying the recipient that they have been selected to receive the Award. GSA provides the recipient with a framed certificate. If the recipient attends either the GSA Annual Meeting or the Meteoritical Society Annual Meeting in the year of the award, the certificate is presented there. Otherwise, the certificate is presented at the annual LPSC meeting the year following the award. If the recipient attends none of these conferences, GSA ships the certificate to the recipient. A brief citation, written by the Committee Chair and the lead nominator, is published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science and included in the GSA Planetary Geology Division newsletter.

* Timing of award adjusted by presenting two in same year