The Rao
Prize was created by a group of spectroscopists who, as graduate
students, benefitted from the emphasis on graduate student
participation, which has been a unique characteristic of the
Symposium.
This coming June three more Rao Prizes will be
awarded. In order to be eligible for the Rao Prize, a student must
(i) be primary author of the work being presented; (ii) be the actual
presenter of the talk; (iii) never have competed for the Rao Prize
prior to this year; and (iv) not have completed a Ph.D. thesis prior
to March 1, 2002. If a student wishes to compete for the Rao
Prize, he or she should indicate this in the comment area of the
abstract (due by March 1) for the talk they wish to be judged and
send a letter from the research supervisor certifying that the
student meets all four of the above requirements. This letter of
certification may be a simple email message addressed to Terry
A. Miller (mss@molspect.mps.ohio-state.edu). The letter should
identify the talk abstract by its acceptance number (when available)
which furnished by return email to thos submitting electronically. The
letter of certification is not a nomination letter and will not be considered by
the prize judges.
Rao Prize winners and their co-authors are invited to submit articles to the Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy which are based on the research described in their talks. After passing the normal review process, each article will appear in the Journal with a caption identifying the paper with a talk that won the Rao Prize
The award is administered by a Prize Committee co-chaired by Arlan Mantz, Connecticut College, and Brenda Winnewisser, Ohio State University and comprised of Kevin Lehmann, Princeton University; John Muenter, University of Rochester; Michael Heaven, Emory University; and Angela R. Hight Walker, NIST. Any questions or suggestions about the Prize should be addressed to the Committee. Anyone (especially post-docs) willing to serve on a panel of judges should contact Arlan Mantz (e-mail: awman@conncoll.edu) or Brenda Winnewisser (e-mail: winnebp@mps.ohio-state.edu).