Rules for the Award of the Booker Gold Medal

  1. The Booker Gold Medal honours the memory of Professor Henry G. Booker who served as URSI Vice President, 1969-1975, and Honorary President until his death in 1988. The award is made normally at intervals of three years, on the occasion of the General Assembly of URSI. If the interval between two General Assemblies is either considerably greater or considerably less than three years, the Board of Officers is authorized to modify the date on which the next Medal will be awarded, the period referred to in Article 2, and the dates referred to in Articles 3 and 5.
  2. The Medal is awarded for outstanding contributions to telecommunications or a related discipline of direct interest to URSI. No member of the URSI Board of Officers shall be eligible. The award is for career achievements of the candidate with evidence of significant contributions within the most recent six-year period
  3. Candidates may be nominated by any Member Committee or URSI, URSI Commission Chair or Vice-Chair or former laureate of any URSI award, but not more than one candidate may be nominated by any one Committee or individual. The names of the candidates must be received by the Secretary General of URSI not later than 15 August of the year preceding that of the General Assembly at which the award is to be made.
  4. The name of each candidate must be accompanied by a nomination form (supplied by the URSI Secretary General) providing information on, inter alia:
    1. a general summary of the candidate’s career and scientific activities;
    2. a review of the candidate’s recent achievements, including references to the most important papers of which the candidate is the sole or a joint author published during the six-year referred to in Article 2;
    3. an outline of the reasons for the nomination of the candidate.
  5. As soon as possible after 15 August, copies of the nomination forms referred to in Article 4 shall be sent to the Awards Advisory Panel by the Secretary General. The members of the Awards Advisory Panel shall be determined by the President of URSI in consultation with the Board of Officers. The Panel is authorized, when necessary, to consult non-members regarding the merits of the candidates, before submitting its own considered view to the Board of Officers not later than 1 March of the year of the General Assembly.
  6. The Board of Officers has full authority to select the candidate to whom the Award will be made. In doing so it will take into account the information provided by the proposers of the candidate, and also the views expressed by the Awards Advisory Panel.
  7. The Board of Officers has full authority to withhold the award if, in the opinion of the members, there is not a qualified candidate.