Call for Nominations
IFMBE and IUPESM Awards


The IFMBE maintains an awards program to recognise individuals for their contributions to biomedical engineering. There are currently two awards: the Otto Schmitt Award and the Vladimir K. Zworykin Award, named after the IFMBE Founder President Professor V. K. Zworykin. The awards are presented every three years on the occasion of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. The Otto Schmitt Award Committee and the Zworykin Award Committee select the awardees.

In addition to its own awards program, IFMBE participates in the IUPESM awards program. Every three years, IUPESM honours individuals with its Merit Awards, which recognise a medical physicist and a biomedical engineer who have established distinguished careers in medical physics and biomedical engineering, respectively. IFMBE is, through its Merit Awards Committee, responsible for the selection of the biomedical engineer to be awarded.

IUPESM Awards of Merit

The International Union of Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) will confer two Awards of Merit at the Sydney 2003 World Congress. These prestigious awards will recognise a biomedical engineer and a medical physicist who have demonstrated a distinguished career in biomedical engineering and medical physics, respectively. The awardees will receive support to attend the Sydney Congress.

The IFMBE has established a subcommittee, chaired by Joachim Nagel, the task of which is to select a biomedical engineer for this award. The subcommittee is seeking nominations from the biomedical engineering community.

The criteria for nominations include: a significant impact on the science and practice of biomedical engineering, major influence on the development of the profession, and meritorious activities in a national and/or international biomedical engineering organisation.

Otto Schmitt Award

The Otto Schmitt Award is given to a biomedical engineer for exceptional contributions to the advancement of the field of medical and biological engineering. Nominees must be members of an IFMBE affiliated organisation. The awardee will receive travel funds to attend the World Congress 2003 in Sydney, where the award will be presented.

The criteria for nominations include innovation, leadership, and seminal contributions to medical and biological engineering.

Vladimir K. Zworykin Award

The Vladimir K. Zworykin Award is given to a biomedical engineer for outstanding research contributions in the field of medical and biological engineering. Nominees must be members of an IFMBE affiliated organisation. The awardee will receive travel funds to attend the World Congress 2003 in Sydney, where the award will be presented.

The criteria for nominations include innovation and outstanding research contributions to medical and biological engineering.

Nomination Procedure

The nomination for all three awards consists of a two-step process. Initially, the nominator is asked to submit a single-page write-up (approximately 500 words) with a summary of the individual's qualifications and addressing the criteria for selection. The committee will evaluate the short summary and select three or four individuals to be further considered for each of the awards. The nominators of these individuals will then be requested to submit a more detailed nomination and full curriculum vitae for final evaluation.

The award committees urge nominators to keep all nominations confidential and not to contact or inform the nominee of the nomination.

To be considered by the award committees, initial nominations must have been received no later than 31 May 2002.

As the pool of awardees and the process of requesting nominations is the same for the IUPESM and the IFMBE awards, the Otto Schmidt Award Committee and the Zworykin Award Committee are organised as subcommittees of the IFMBE Merit Awards Committee. Nominations for all awards should be sent to:

Prof. Dr. Joachim Nagel
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Stuttgart
Seidenstrasse 36
70174 Stuttgart
Germany
Email: jn@bmt.uni-stuttgart.de