IAU PhD Prize to Recognise Excellence in Astrophysics

The IAU PhD Prize recognises outstanding scientific achievement in astrophysics around the world. Each IAU Division has, once a year, the opportunity to award its own prize to the candidate it feels has carried out the most remarkable work during the previous year (i.e. a PhD Thesis which has been defended between the 16 December in the previous year, and 15 December this year). Theses that are in preparation or submitted, but not yet defended by the deadline of a given year, are not elegible but can be submitted for consideration the following year.

PhD prize winners will receive a certificate and will be invited to present their work (remotely or in-person) during the Division Days to be held at the 2027 IAU General Assembly (GA) in Rome. The IAU will cover the GA registration fees for winners. Additionally, the winners will have the opportunity to record a presentation describing their thesis work, for upload on the IAU website and YouTube channel. An IAU press release will announce the winners.

Candidates are required to submit: an abstract of their thesis that is suitable for public consumption; a 1500-word thesis summary; a copy of their PhD certificate; the names of three letter writers (one of which must be the PhD advisor); a CV; and a bibliography. The winner of each Division will be decided by the Division’s own standards and methods — guided by the Division Steering Committee — and possibly with corroborating external consultation or additional letters of recommendation.

The IAU PhD Prize is open to candidates from any country, regardless of whether the country has an IAU National Membership. Additionally, a separate prize may be awarded to eligible applicants who conducted their PhD research under adverse conditions. Applicants interested in being considered for this PhD prize-at-large are required to submit a contextual justification no longer than 250 words to allow the assessment panel to determine their eligibility. (Please indicate whether this justification must remain confidential to the assessment panel.) If suitable candidates are identified, the PhD prize-at-large will be awarded based on scientific merit.

The deadline for all applications is 15 December, 11:59 PM (UTC+1) every year, to include all applications since the previous year’s deadline. The application form is available here: https://www.iau.org/submissions/phd-prize/