STEPS TO CREATING A DIVERSE AND EQUITABLE HONORS AND AWARDS PROGRAM

An established tradition of scientific professional societies is to recognize members of the scientific community through honors and awards. These awards recognize and reward members for advancements in scientific achievements, broadening participation in science, and making science accessible across a variety of platforms and audiences. However, analysis of current practices in honors and awards programs reveal biases in the nomination and selection processes. These biases have become a barrier to achieving full representation of the diversity of scientists’ worthy of honors and awards within the geosciences. However, there are actionable measures that scientific professional societies can take to improve diversity and equity in honors and awards. For example, awards and medals bestowed by the American Geophysical Union were significantly under-represented with respect to gender and nationality. In 2014, members who were categorized as women represented less than 20% of awardees and international members represented only 10% of awardees. In contrast, just 5 years later, women received 51% of 2019 awards and international members received 29% of 2019 awards through a strong communal effort to address under-representation.

This presentation will 1) examine the diversity, or lack of, awardees from multiple geoscience professional societies over time; 2) describe the results of initiatives taken by the American Geophysical Union to address under-represented groups in their honors and awards; and 3) summarize steps that professional societies must take to ensure a diverse and equitable honors and awards process.