C19. THE IUPAP YOUNG SCIENTISTS PRIZE IN ASTROPHYSICS

THE IUPAP YOUNG SCIENTISTS PRIZE IN ASTROPHYSICS

The Commission on Astrophysics (C19) of the International Union of Pure and
Applied Physics is pleased to announce the award of its 2008 Young Physicist's
Prize to Prof. Eiichiro Komatsu of the University of Texas, Austin, for his
work on the interpretation of cosmic microwave background data, first from
COBE and more recently from WMAP, especially limits on the non-Gaussianity
of the CMB.

C19 also awarded Honorable Mention to two additional outstanding nominees,
Marta Volonteri for work on the evolution of black holes in the early universe
and Sarah Gallagher for studies of highly absorbed quasars with broad absorption lines.

Prof. Komatsu received his PhD in 2001 from Tohoku University, Sendai,
Japan in 2001 and held visiting student and postdoctoral positions in
Princeton before joining the UTA faculty in 2003, where he has just been
promoted to associate professor. Among his other honors are The Astronomical
Society of Japan Young Astronomer Award (2004), an Alfred P. Sloan Research
Fellowship (2005), and the Morita Memorial Award (2006).
The Prize (consisting of a gold medal and a cash award) will be presented
to Komatsu at the December 2008 "Texas" Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where he will also deliver a talk about his work.

The first, 2006 award in Astrophysics went to Dr. Marta Burgay for her contributions to the discovery and characterization of the first orbiting pair of pulsars.

C19 expects to present its third prize by the end of 2010. An announcement of
opportunity to nominate candidates for the 2010 prize, will appear in newsletters and/or web sites of IUPAP, the International Astronomical Union, the European Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, and other organizations, with a deadline in early spring 2010. Candidates must not have completed more than 8 years of post-PhD research, excluding career interruptions, at the time of the award. The prize will consist of an IUPAP Medal, travel expenses to the meeting where it is presented, and possibly a small cash award. The winner will probably be asked to give a short talk about the work for which the prize is awarded at the Texas meeting.

Nominations can come from any astrophysicist who knows the nominee's work well.
A nomination should consist of a letter explaining the nominee's qualifications,
a complete CV and list of publications, and two letters of support, at least
one of which must come from someone who is not at the nominee's institution,
is not a past mentor, and is not a frequent co-author or other close
collaborator. Nominations should be sent to the Acting Chair and the Secretary of the Commision and to the Chair of the Selection Committee

Acting Chair: M. Victoria Fonseca
Dept. Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, E-28040 Madrid
SPAIN
E-Mail: fonseca@gae.ucm.es

Commission Secretary: Patricia Whitelock
South African Astronomical Observatory
PO Box 9, 7935 Obervatory
SOUTH AFRICA
E-Mail: paw@saao.ac.za

Selection Committee Chair: Virginia Trimble
Physics Dept, Univ of California
Irvine CA 92697-4575
USA
E-Mail: vtrimble@uci.edu