Dear colleagues,

The international space weather and space climate medals have been created in 2013 to honour major contributions in the field. There are three medals: The Kristian Birkeland Medal honours basic and applied research ; the Baron Marcel Nicolet Medal awards the ability to bind the space weather community in a spirit of peace and friendship ; and the Alexander Chizhevsky Medal, which awards an early career scientist. The medal committee is formed of the /scientific medal committee,/ which proposes the winners to three academies of science, that of Norway, Belgium and Russia. The final decision is made jointly by these 3 academies.

When the medal committee started to prepare the medal competition for this year, the work was interrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started a war that we condemn and regret. The scientific medal committee finds it impossible to work serenely in the context of this war, all the more so because the medals were set up in a spirit of peace, friendship and international collaboration. The committee therefore decided to skip the 2022 contest.

Mai 5th , 2022
Jean Lilensten, chair of the scientific medal committee.