Felix Chayes Prize for Excellence in Research in Mathematical Petrology
A. Description
The Chayes Prize is a cash award that may be used to support research in progress or provide support for new research. The prize was endowed by gifts provided in 1996 by Chayes’s widow, Dr. Irene Hendry Chayes, and his sister, Mrs. Natalie C. Tenney in 1997. At the meeting of the IAMG’s General Assembly during the XXX International Geological Congress in Beijing in 1996, a memorial in honor of Felix Chayes was approved. Each recipient is to receive an engraved plaque bearing the recipient’s name.
Felix Chayes was born in New York City on May 10, 1916. In 1932 he entered New York University with the intention of eventually studying law, but as an undergraduate he decided to switch to geology as a field of study, receiving a BA in geology in 1937 at New York University. For graduate work in geology, he transferred to Columbia University, where he received an MA in 1939 and a PhD in 1942. After short stints as chemist for Gillis & Pawel Metal Company in North Carolina in 1941, and as a mineral economist with the War Production Board in Washington DC in 1941 and 1942, Chayes served as a chemical petrographer with the US Bureau of Mines at College Park Station in Maryland until 1946. After spending a year as petrographer for the Manhattan Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1947 Chayes moved to the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, where he remained until his official retirement in 1986. At the Carnegie Institution, he focused on applications of statistics to the understanding of igneous processes and the classification of igneous rocks. Chayes worked tirelessly in several projects, including the development of the Igneous Geochemical Data Base (IGBA), which was begun in 1977. Following retirement, he continued to be involved with IGBA until his death in February 1993 following an automobile accident the previous month near his home in Kensington, Maryland. He received the Krumbein medal in 1984.
B. Supporting By-Law
By-Law 13 determines the fundamental conditions for the prize:
13. The Felix Chayes Prize for Excellence in Research in Mathematical Petrology is a cash prize endowed in honor of Felix Chayes that shall be given to recipients of exceptional potential and proven research ability. The prize shall be presented for outstanding contributions to statistical petrology or related applications of mathematics or informatics. Prospective recipients should be in mid-career.
C. Guidelines
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- Search for nominees shall be done internationally through the IAMG Newsletter and other appropriate publications with sufficient anticipation to allow presentation of the prize during the nomination year.
- Nominations for the Chayes Prize should be submitted to the Chairman of the Awards Committee and accompanied by descriptions of research in progress, or research that might be undertaken or extended following receipt of the prize. While an individual recipient may receive the prize, a research team also may be a recipient.
- The recipient or senior team member must be at least five years past the doctorate and have publications relevant to the field of the Chayes Prize as evidence of achievement up to the time of the award.
- For the fair and proper selection of the recipients, the Awards Committee members shall evaluate all nominees based on the information reached to the Committee, which shall be condensed in the form of numerical scores.
- The recipient or senior team member must be between the ages of 35 and 60. Membership is expected but is not a requirement.
- Each recipient is expected to attend the meeting where the prize is presented, with reasonable travel expenses provided by IAMG, thereby making the cash prize available in its entirety to the recipient. If awarded to a team, the Association shall pay travel expenses for one team member who serves as the representative of the team.
- The recipient is expected to present a paper at the meeting that is concerned with the research cited in presentation of the prize.
- Uses of funds supplied by the prize are left to the judgment of recipients, who need not account to the Association for uses of the funds. Funds attached to the prize may be paid directly to an individual recipient. If awarded to a team, the funds may be presented to the team’s institution for use by the team. Funds for the prize are derived from earnings of the Chayes endowment.
- The Chayes Prize is presented on an alternate-year basis with the Krumbein Medal.
- The Awards Committee shall be responsible to prepare and announcement with at least one picture of the recipient that shall go for publication in Computers & Geosciences, the Association’s Internet site, and scheduling permitting, in the proceedings of the conference where the prize is awarded.
- The amount of the Chayes Prize shall be set in the budget for the corresponding year and shall depend on the earnings generated by the Chayes fund.