Call for nominations:
International Space Weather and Space Climate Medals 2026
Dear Colleagues,
The E-SWAN Awards Committee is happy to announce the 2026 contest for the three International Space Weather and Space Climate Medals. The medal recipients will be announced during the Medal Ceremony on 2nd November 2026 at the European Space Weather Week in Florence (Italy). Each winner will be invited to give a 20-minute lecture about his/her research in a dedicated session on the following day. Moreover, medallists are invited to serve on the Awards Committee in the following three years, and they are offered free E-SWAN membership for those three years.
All three prizes are prestigious recognitions of the recipients' major contributions in the field of Space Weather and Space Climate. Medal recipients’ achievements must have been documented via publications in peer-reviewed journals or book chapters, or must be technological contributions that have led to a fully implemented and documented new Space Weather or Space Climate capability. Medal recipients’ work must be internationally recognized in the field of Space Weather and/or Space Climate.
In addition to the above common criteria, there are the following specific requirements for each of the three medals:
The Kristian Birkeland Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate:
The Kristian Birkeland Medal is awarded for outstanding achievements in combining basic and applied research, and in developing essential Space Weather and/or Space Climate products used across scientific disciplines and/or even outside the research community. The work must have led to a better physical comprehension of the solar-terrestrial phenomena, to a crucial improvement of Space Weather and/or Space Climate modelling, or to a new generation of observational techniques or instruments.
The Baron Marcel Nicolet Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate:
The Baron Marcel Nicolet Medal is awarded for outstanding achievements in educating and serving the Space Weather and Space Climate community, for binding it together in a spirit of peace and friendship, fostering collaboration and cooperation, and/or for going even beyond the Space Weather and Space Climate research community by engaging larger audiences.
The Alexander Chizhevsky Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate:
The Alexander Chizhevsky Medal is awarded to an early career scientist in recognition of outstanding achievements in Space Weather and Space Climate with an innovative approach. The nominee must be an early career scientist within eight (8) years of receiving his/her first PhD or an equivalent degree at the time of nomination. This period may be increased for confirmed career breaks (such as periods of sickness, military service, parental leave, and other care duties which took them away from their scientific work).
How to nominate?
In order to nominate a person for one of the International Space Weather and Space Climate Medals, please send one single pdf document which includes:
- Your full name and professional address.
- The full name and professional address of the person that you nominate (the nominee).
- Which of the three medals the nominee is nominated for (only one medal type is allowed for each nominee).
- Reasons for the nomination (two pages maximum). Please make sure that these reasons should relate to Space Weather and/or Space Climate and fulfill the criteria listed above.
- A full CV of the nominee (three pages maximum).
- Letters of support from two colleagues, preferably outside your own or the candidate's institution. You may also include those two colleagues as co-signatories on the nomination proposal. For the Chizhevsky prize, a recommendation letter from the PhD advisor (in case the PhD supervisor is not the person submitting the nomination) is advised.
- Up to five references (journal articles, prizes, patents, etc.) of the nominee's work.
Self-nominations are not allowed. Any individual can only nominate one person for a medal. Note that the medal committee members cannot nominate or be nominated.
Send the documents by email to: medals@lists.eswan.eu
The deadline for the nominations: 15th September 2026.
Composition of the Awards Committee in 2026:
Previous winners:
Charles N. Arge (2023 Birkeland)
Claudio Cesaroni (2023 Chizhevsky)
Yoshizumi Miyoshi (2024 Birkeland)
Theodosios Chatzistergos (2024 Chizhevsky)
Erika Palmerio (2025 Chizhevsky)
Ex-officio members:
Ronald van der Linden: Representative of the E-SWAN Executive Board.
Piers Jiggens: Representative of the ESWW Programme Committee.
Ilya Usoskin: Representative of the E-SWAN Publication Committee.
The Awards Committee is chaired by Andrea Opitz.
For further information on the history and the scientists behind the medals, please refer to:
https://eswan.eu/index.php/organs/committees/awards-committee
