Kapteyn Blaauw Prize Committee

Who are we?

Eline Tolstoy (scientific chair), Tim Lichtenberg, Erwin de Blok, Thijs van der Hulst, Lingyu Wang, and Edwin van Bloois (executive chair).

What do we do?

The Kapteyn Blaauw Prize Committee was reinstalled in 2023 and its role is two-fold, namely:
(i) selecting the new Blaauw professor and ensuring a host, and
(ii) supporting the institute board in selecting candidates and preparing nominations for the many prizes awarded to astronomers each year.

How do we work?

(i) In many cases, supervisors can nominate candidates. There are no restrictions on the number of candidates. In these cases, the committee need only encourage staff to nominate their students, PhDs, or PDs.

(ii) In other cases, the number of nominees is limited to one or two per institute and the nominees have to be selected/nominated by the director. In this case, the committee helps draw up a short ranking list of potential nominees with a brief motivation. The board of the institute then takes the final decision and the committee, with the help of the supervisors, can help prepare the nomination forms.

(iii) Sometimes staff may be nominated and in that case, the board of the institute may also ask the committee for names, but the board may also make its own selection and make the final (confidential) decision on the candidate, and

(iv) in rare cases, nominations can be submitted only by the director or the board, sometimes strictly confidentially, and the committee is not asked for input.