The committee is charged with soliciting, judging, and awarding the David Lee Hull Prize at the ISHPSSB meeting.

Composition

The Hull Prize committee is composed of

  • the three most recent Past-Presidents, plus
  • additional members of the Society chosen by the Council for their capacities to distinguish important contributions in the field.

The Committee contains two members of the Council. Except for the Past-Presidents, the members of the Committee are appointed by the President, in consultation with the Council.

The Chair of the Committee is the first-elected of the three Past-Presidents.

Report of the 2021 David L. Hull Prize Committee

The 2021 David L. Hull Prize Committee is traditionally comprised of the three most recent past presidents, two members of Council, and additional members appointed by the President. The Chair of the committee is normally the first-elected of the three Past-Presidents. Because Paul Griffiths was unable to serve, this year’s committee consisted of Michel Morange, Marsha Richmond, Joeri Witteween, and Jenny Bangham. Michel Morange asked to be relieved of chair duties, so Marsha Richmond served as Chair.

The charge to the Hull Prize Committee is to select an individual who has made “an extraordinary contribution to scholarship and service that promotes interdisciplinary connections between history, philosophy, social studies, and biology.” A subsidiary consideration is fostering the careers of junior scholars in the Society. The nomination package consists of a minimum of two letters of nomination (and a maximum of four), each signed by at least one member of ISHPSSB, along with the nominee’s current curriculum vitae.

The committee solicited and encouraged nominations from the membership in the Fall Newsletter. After discussing the nominations by email and clarifying the selection procedure, the committee met via Zoom to discuss the merits of each nominee. For 2021, the Committee considered three highly qualified nominees and the decision was challenging. After considerable reflection, the votes cast resulted in a tie (because this year’s committee had an even number). We then asked the President to attend a second meeting to help with our deliberations. Again after a great deal of discussion, the committee reached a consensus.

The committee Chair drafted an award letter based on committee discussion, the nomination letters, and the candidate’s CV. The draft letter was circulated to committee members who suggest changes and improvements. Although normally the award decision is conveyed to the President, who informs the winner of their selection, this year the Chair contacted the recipient. The award letter will be read at the ISHPSSB/CSHL virtual Award Ceremony by Marsha Richmond and the recipient will receive the Hull medal via post.

It is the Committee’s general practice to encourage those who make nominations of candidates who were unsuccessful to consider putting them forward again in the next cycle (with a maximum of three). This year all three nominees were first nominated in 2019, so the Chair contacted the two nominators and encouraged them to consider putting the nominees forward again in 2023. The 2023 committee will also encourage additional nominations.

Marsha Richmond, Chair

Report of the 2015 David L. Hull Prize Committee

The Prize Committee for 2013-2015 was comprised of the following members:

Rachel Ankeny, Ana Barahona, Michael Dietrich, James Griesemer (Chair), Paul Griffiths, Lynn Nyhart

The Charge to the committee is as follows: The David L. Hull Prize is a biennial prize established in 2011 by ISHPSSB to honor the life and legacy of David L. Hull (1935-2010). The David L. Hull Prize honors an extraordinary contribution to scholarship and service that promotes interdisciplinary connections between history, philosophy, social studies, and biology. A complete nomination package will consist of two letters of nomination each signed by at least one member of ISHPSSB and a current curriculum vitae of the candidate.

The committee solicited and encouraged nominations from the membership in March and April, 2015 prior to the July meeting in Montréal and discussed nominations by email. The committee then voted on the nominees. The Committee Chair then drafted an award letter, based on committee discussion, the nomination letters, and candidate cv. The draft letter was then circulated to the committee members who suggest changes and improvements. The award decision was conveyed to the President, who informed the winner of their selection, to insure that they would be able to attend the meeting where the award is made. The letter was read at the prize ceremony by Jim Griesemer.

For the 2015 meeting, the committee considered three highly qualified nominees and the decision was challenging, but in the end, we reached consensus. It is the Committee’s general practice to encourage those who made nominations of candidates unsuccessful in a given competition to consider doing again in future years.

One lingering issue for the Hull Prize is what to do with the stock of Hull Prize medals. Currently, Michael Dietrich, the past President who designed and arranged for the medals to be struck, keeps them at his home. He has thus far brought two medals to each ISHPSSB meeting, one to award and one back-up medal in case something should happen to the first one. The Society should discuss a more permanent arrangement for storage of such items and conveyance to the meetings, in case Mike Dietrich is unable to attend.

James Griesemer, Chair