Distinguished Career Investigator Award in Materials Modeling
Description
The International Society of Materials Modeling (ISMM) Distinguished Career Achievement Award in Materials Modeling recognizes and honors an individual who has made outstanding, sustained contributions to the field of materials modeling over the course of a distinguished career. Contributions may include innovative research, development of modeling methods and tools, leadership in the materials modeling community, mentorship and education, service to ISMM and the MMM conference series, and efforts that have broadened or strengthened the international materials modeling community.
Eligibility
The award recognizes an individual who has made significant and lasting contributions to materials modeling and to the broader materials modeling community over a distinguished career of twenty years or more. The nominee should remain active in the field at the time of nomination.
Prize
The recipient will receive an engraved plaque, a $1,500 award, economy-class travel to the International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modeling (MMM) at which the award is presented, accommodation during the conference, and complimentary conference registration.
The recipient must accept the award in person at the MMM Conference Banquet.
Nomination Procedures
Nominator Eligibility
The nominator must be a researcher who meets at least one of the following criteria:
- Has attended at least two of the previous five MMM conferences. This eligibility pathway will be retired at the end of 2026.
- Has been a member of ISMM for a minimum of two continuous years.
Current members of the ISMM Board of Directors are not eligible to submit nominations or supporting letters.
Nominee Eligibility
The nominee must be a researcher who meets at least one of the following criteria:
- Has attended at least two of the previous five MMM conferences. This eligibility pathway will be retired at the end of 2028.
- Has been a member of ISMM for a minimum of four continuous years in the year of nomination.
The nominee must be active in the field of materials modeling at the time of nomination.
Current members of the ISMM Board of Directors are not eligible to be nominated.
Self-nominations are not accepted.
Nomination Package
The nomination package must include:
- A proposed citation of 25 words or fewer highlighting the major contributions of the nominee.
- A nomination letter from the nominator, no more than two pages in length, describing the nominee’s major contributions to materials modeling, including research achievements, leadership, mentoring, service, community-building, and contributions to ISMM/MMM, as applicable.
- The nominee’s curriculum vitae, no more than ten pages in length.
- Up to three additional supporting letters from individuals familiar with the nominee’s research contributions, professional achievements, leadership, mentoring, service, or broader community contributions. Each supporting letter should be no more than two pages.
- All documents should be submitted by the nominator as a single PDF file by email with the subject line “ISMM Distinguished Career Award” to [insert awards email address].
Deadline
The nomination deadline is August 1, 2026.
Evaluation
The Executive Committee of ISMM will screen all nomination packages for eligibility and completeness. Eligible nominations will then be submitted to the ISMM Board of Directors for evaluation.
The ISMM Board of Directors will evaluate the eligible nominations and vote to select the award recipient. Any Board member with a conflict of interest related to a nomination must disclose the conflict and recuse themselves from discussion and voting on that nomination.
Past awardees
Recipient of the 2024 Distinguished Career Investigator Award in Materials Modeling:
Jörg Neugebauer
Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials GmbH, Germany
Professor Neugebauer has made seminal contributions in first principles-based multiscale materials design that has enabled precise and efficient computations of real-world materials properties and processes. He has significantly contributed to the study of complex materials systems, such as metal alloys and semiconductor materials, by integrating quantum mechanical methods with large-scale simulations. His work has led to new insights into material properties, influencing the design and development of advanced materials for various industrial applications. Additionally, Professor Neugebauer has played a crucial role in fostering interdisciplinary research, bridging the gap between theoretical studies and experimental materials science. The career achievements of Professor Neugebauer have set a high standard for researchers in the community of materials scientists.
Recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Career Investigator Award in Materials Modeling:
William A. Curtin, Jr.
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Professor Curtin earned a 4 yr. ScB/ScM degree in Physics from Brown University in 1981 and a PhD in theoretical physics from Cornell University in 1986. He worked as staff researcher at British Petroleum until 1993 when he joined Virginia Tech. In 1998 he returned to Brown as Full Professor in the Solid Mechanics group, and was appointed Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor in 2006. He joined Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne as the Director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 2011 and officially as Full Professor in 2012. He will rejoin Brown as Full Professor in 2023. His research successes include predictive theories of hydrogen storage in amorphous metals, strength and toughness of fiber composites, dynamic strain aging and ductility in lightweight AI and Mg metal alloys, solute strengthening of metal alloys including high entropy alloys, and hydrogen embrittlement of metals, along with innovative multiscale modeling methods to tackle many of these problems. Professor Curtin was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2005-06, was Editor-in-Chief of "Modeling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering" from 2006-2016, has published over 300 journal papers that have received nearly 23500 citations with an h-index of 82 (Google Scholar), and has been the Principal Investigator on over S36M of funded research projects.