Father James B. Macelwane Award

The Father James B. Macelwane Annual Award was established by the American Meteorological Society to honor the late Rev. James B. Macelwane, S.J., a world renowned authority of seismology, who was a geophysicist and Dean of the Institute of Technology, Saint Louis University, until his death in 1956.  The recipient of the Father James B. Macelwane award will receive a stipend of $1000 supported by member donations to the AMS Giving Program.

The purpose of this award is to stimulate interest in meteorology among college students through the submission of original student papers concerned with some phase of the atmospheric sciences.  The student must be enrolled as an undergraduate at the time the paper is written, and no more than two students from any one institution may enter papers in any one contest.

The Society encourages applications from women, minorities, and disabled students, traditionally underrepresented in the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences.

Submission of Papers:

Applicants are responsible for completing their application before the submission deadline.  Incomplete applications will not be accepted! (All uploads should be in pdf format.)

To consider papers for the Macelwane Award, the AMS Committee of Judges must receive the following:

• a pdf copy of the original paper,
• an abstract of no more than 250 words,
• a letter of application from the author, including mailing address and email, stating the title of the paper and the name of the university at which the paper was written, and
• a letter from the department head or other faculty member of the department, confirming that the author was an undergraduate student at the time the paper was written, and indicating the elements of the paper that represent original contributions by the student.
• the Student Assessment form completed by the department head or other faculty member of the department. This is in addition to the faculty letter.
• Applicants must be U.S. citizens or hold permanent resident status.  No age restriction exists.

Award includes:

• $1000 stipend
• Partial travel coverage to attend the AMS Annual Meeting

The evaluation of papers occurs during the summer.  Announcement of the award recipient will be made August of 2024.