Kalman prize for best paper

The Kalman Prize for Best Paper was instituted in 2016 to recognise excellence in research carried out by New Zealand mathematicians. The Prize will normally be awarded annually for an outstanding and innovative piece of research in the mathematical sciences published by a member or members of the NZMS. The Prize is for a single publication of original research, which may be an article, monograph or book, having appeared within the last 5 calendar years: 2018-2022. The value of the Prize is $5000. The Prize is generously funded by the Margaret and John Kalman Charitable Trust, and recognises the significant contributions to mathematics in New Zealand made by Professor John Kalman.

Eligibility. A publication may be nominated for the Prize by any member of the NZMS who is not an author of that publication. To be eligible, the nominated publication must have at least one author who:

i) is a current member of the NZMS, and was a member in the calendar year of publication of the nominated work; and

ii) is a resident of New Zealand, and used a New Zealand address in the publication.

In the case of publications with multiple eligible authors, the Prize will be shared by all eligible authors. The existence of authors who do not meet the conditions in i) and ii) above will not preclude the award, although the judging panel may take into account whether the NZ author has made a major contribution to the published work. The judging panel may deem a publication ineligible if an author has previously received an award from the NZMS for a body of research that included the nominated publication.

Nominations should include the following:

• a brief summary from the nominator(s) of 1-2 pages of what makes the nominated publication important, innovative and outstanding (with appropriate references to prior or subsequent work in the field) as well as a confirmation that the author satisfies the eligibility requirements;

• an electronic copy (pdf) of the publication;

• the names of six possible assessors. The judging panel may approach assessors other than those nominated. Assessors must not have a conflict of interest (see below) and they should be able to give scientific insight into the work to be assessed. It may be easier to avoid a conflict of interest by choosing international assessors.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President by 31 August. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the Kalman Prize for Best Paper.

A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS President, and makes recommendations to the President for the Prize. We note that the prize should be awarded solely on the merit of the publication, not on career achievements of the author or authors. The winner(s) of the prize will be announced at the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium Dinner in December.

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 Kalman prize