On behalf of The Franklin Institute, I invite you to nominate candidates for the 2017 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science. This award is presented annually by The Franklin Institute to an outstanding member of the international scientific community for outstanding work in the basic, applied, or engineering sciences. A gold medal and $250,000 cash prize are bestowed upon the individual selected to receive this distinguished award.

Each year, a unique field of study is chosen as a theme. The theme of the 2017 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science is Perturbations of Natural Systems in the Anthropocene. The Franklin Institute seeks nominations of individuals who have made significant contributions to understanding and quantifying perturbations of natural systems within the biosphere, atmosphere, or hydrosphere in the age of the Anthropocene. Nominations should recognize fundamental contributions that emphasize large-scale modeling or synthesis of observational data in order to provide insights into these systems within the recent past and into the near future. Such insights may come from investigating time scales of minutes to millennia and study across multiple disciplines. 

The Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science and the Bower Award for Business Leadership are the newest in The Franklin Institute's long history of recognizing and encouraging achievement in science, technology, and leadership. Through The Franklin Institute Awards, which today includes the Benjamin Franklin Medals, awarded in seven areas of science and engineering, and the Bower Awards, the Institute has honored more than 2,000 luminaries since 1824, representing the greatest minds of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The roster of Franklin Institute laureates includes Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Rudolf Diesel, Marie and Pierre Curie, Orville Wright, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jacques Cousteau, Ruth Patrick, Stephen Hawking, John Mather, Ralph Cicerone, Jane Goodall, Gordon Moore, Elizabeth Blackburn, Steven Squyres, W. Richard Peltier, Bill Gates, Dean Kamen, and Subra Suresh. I urge you to nominate a candidate whose name should be added to this distinguished list.

Please share this call for nominations with your colleagues and professional associations and post it on relevant websites. Questions about the appropriateness of a particular nomination are welcome and may be directed to Dr. Frederic Bertley, senior vice president for science and education, at fbertley@fi.edu. If you know of a candidate who has made an extraordinary contribution to the understanding of perturbations of natural systems in the Anthropocene, I strongly encourage you to participate in the exciting nomination process for the 2017 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science.