ASB Awards

Following feedback from the society, the Executive Board extensively discussed and approved several changes to the Awards selection process beginning this year.  Given that several ASB awards are assessed based on a % cutoff of blind abstract scores, approximately 70 to 90 abstracts/Award packages are now considered each year across all of our awards.  Given our membership size, finding equal representation from each of our 5 discipline areas and members willing to review such a large number of packages without any conflict for any award has become a substantial practical limitation.  As a result, sub-committees will be formed for each Award, with some members serving on multiple sub-committees.  The Borelli and Hay Awards Committee will be comprised of the current President-Elect and President, and three former Past-Presidents and/or Borelli/Hay winners (requiring equal representation of all 5 ASB disciplinary categories) as solicited by the current Past-President.  Members in conflict (either nominating or submitting for either Award or a former mentor or mentee) will be excused from participation in the assessment of either Award).  Separate committees will be established for the remaining awards while maintaining discipline diversity (at least n=5 per committee).  Any committee member with a conflict will be excused from receiving submissions for that award (e.g., a member that is in conflict for the Journal of Biomechanics Award would not receive those abstracts but would be eligible to participate in the selection of the Clinical Biomechanics Award).

The current Past-President serves as a non-voting Chair for all of the Awards Committees and is responsible for recruiting members to serve on the Awards Committees and administrating the process.  Each committee member independently reviews the appropriate material and submits his/her vote electronically to the Chair without discussion amongst the committee members.  The recipient/finalist of each award will be determined via the highest average score as tabulated by the Chair.  If an average ranking is identical for two candidates, the smallest range of scores will serve as a tie-break.

Here is the 2008 Awards Committee.