Gillian Thornley Award for outstanding contribution to the cause or profession of mathematics

This annual award was established in 2020 to recognize outstanding contributions to the cause or profession of mathematics in New Zealand. The award will be made to a person or group that has made an outstanding contribution to mathematics within NZ, with the nominations being assessed on the basis of the case made by the nominators. For the purposes of this award, “contribution to the cause or profession or mathematics” could include (but is not limited to) contributions to teaching and education, research leadership, outreach, engagement with government bodies, diversity, service to professional societies, mentoring, and communication of mathematics to a general audience.

Eligibility. Nominees need not be members of the NZMS but the award would normally be given for work that took place in New Zealand and contributed to NZ mathematics.

Nominations should include the following:

• A joint statement of support (at most one page) from two nominators, who must be current members of the NZMS.

• A brief CV (at most three pages) containing: name and affiliation; professional experience including employment history and roles; awards, prizes or other relevant recognition, if any; summary of activities or service relevant to the contribution for which the person is being nominated. If a nomination is for more than one person, CVs should be provided for two of the nominees.

• Any other relevant information, if necessary (at most three pages). This could (but need not) include a letter of support.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President by 31 August. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the Gillian Thornley Award.

COVID

NZMS recognises that the effects of COVID lockdowns and other disruptions on research capacity have been unequally distributed. To ameliorate this, the prize committee determining our research awards will take unequal opportunity loss due to COVID disruption into account. To facilitate this consideration candidates are invited to submit a half page description of the effect that COVID related disruption has had on their research output. Submitting this description is voluntary and, as with all other application materials, the information revealed is protected by our privacy policy.

Policy relating to COVID will be updated as appropriate at the beginning of each calendar year.

Conflict of Interest

(Note: these have been adapted from rules used by the Royal Society for managing conflict of interest with Marsden Panel members.)

An assessor, referee, committee member or convenor has a potential conflict of interest if:

• they are a supervisor, partner, spouse or a family member of any applicant(s)

• they work in the same team or department of any applicant(s)

• they have co-authored publications with the applicant(s) in the past five years

• they have a low level of comfort assessing the application due to their relationship with the applicant(s)

An assessor with a potential conflict of interest will not be asked to evaluate the application.

If a committee member has a potential conflict of interest, they must discuss the conflict with the convenor. The convenor will decide whether or not the committee member can continue with their role.

If the convenor has a potential conflict of interest, they must discuss the conflict with the NZMS president. The president will decide whether the duties of convening be passed to another member. Disputes regarding conflict of interest will be resolved by the convenor and, if necessary, the NZMS president.

Privacy Act

All applications and reference letters are to be treated as confidential. They are to be accessed only by the members of the prize committee or accreditation committee and, where necessary, the NZMS president.

The NZMS president and convenor of the committee may keep a secure copy of all applications and reference letters for a maximum of one year following the conclusion of the assessment process. This is solely for the purpose of

• Resolving any disputes

• Allowing applicants to reapply with the same reference letters.

Note that invitations to assessors and referees must make it clear that letters will be retained for these purposes.

All other committee or panel members must delete all application files and reference letters immediately following the conclusion of the assessment process.

Recipients of the Gillian Thornley Award