Rules change for Valley Prize; Fluids Merge Two Awards

The George E. Valley Prize, for an outstanding physicist in any field at an early stage in his or her career, has undergone a change in its eligibility rules. The change is designed to better target the best candidates in both theory and experiment, and to bring the Prize more closely in line with the concept that the late George E. Valley Jr. had in mind when he bequeathed the funds for the most lucrative Prize offered by the APS.

The Valley Prize, first given in 2002, carries a stipend of $20,000. The original requirement limited the candidate pool to those under 30; the rules for this year do not refer to chronological age, but require instead that the candidate have received his or her PhD no earlier than April 1, 1999. This change was implemented upon the recommendation of the Prizes and Awards Advisory Committee, and was done with the approval of George C. Valley, son of George E. Valley, Jr.

The nomination deadline for this year's Valley Prize is July 1, 2004, and nominations should be sent to: Shelly Johnston, Attn: George E. Valley Prize, American Physical Society, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844. Further information about the Valley Prize is available at http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/valley.cfm.

In another development, two awards in the field of Fluid Dynamics have been merged to create one major prize. Effective this year, the Otto Laporte Award will be combined with the old Fluid Dynamics Prize to establish a new prize, also named the Fluid Dynamics Prize.

This new Prize will carry a stipend of $10,000.

The Otto Laporte Award began as the Otto Laporte Memorial Lecture in 1972 and became an APS Award in 1985. Previous winners of the Award will continue to be listed on the APS web site at http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/laporte.cfm. All new nominations for research in fluid dynamics should be directed to the Fluid Dynamics Prize; the relevant information is at http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/fluid.cfm.