Fellowship Nominations Go Electronic

Starting this year, any APS member wishing to nominate a colleague for Fellowship will do so using the web. The previous system of downloading, filling out and mailing in a paper form has been discontinued. The web-based form allows the sponsor to enter all the candidate's information, to upload support letters, and to designate a co-sponsor (Fellowship nominations require two APS members as sponsors).

Because Fellowship nominations are active for two years, the 2007 process will be a hybrid one, in which the nominations submitted before the 2006 deadlines will still be in paper, while the nominations that arrive after the 2006 deadline will do so electronically. By the time of the 2008 deadlines, however, all the paper should have been flushed out of the system.

As the system has worked up to now, sponsors had to mail in their nominations, which were then logged into the system manually. Multiple copies of each nomination had to be made, and then packages of nominations had to be sent to the relevant units’ Fellowship committees. With about 400 nominations received each year, a large expenditure of time and money has been involved.

The web-based nomination system is available at URL http://fellowship.aps.org.  Since only APS members can sponsor Fellowship nominations, access to the form requires an APS userID and password, to which every member is entitled. Those who have already set up their userID and password but may have forgotten them, can call or email Shelly Johnston at 301-209-3268, johnston@aps.org. Sponsors without passwords can obtain them from a link located on the Fellowship log-in page.

“We have tried to eliminate all the bugs,” says Alan Chodos, APS Associate Executive Officer, “but undoubtedly some will remain. We hope our members will be understanding as we work to fix any residual problems.” Sponsors who have trouble in submitting their nominations should contact Shelly Johnston as above.