Overview

The Cowley-Moodie Award was originally established in 1984. The award may be referred to as “The AMMS Cowley-Moodie Award (sponsored by ThermoFisher)”.

The award is open to electron microscopists working in the physical sciences. It provides an international air-ticket for the recipient to present a paper at an international scientific conference and/or to visit overseas scientific laboratories within twelve months of the award.

Aspects of John Cowley and Alec Moodie’s Achievements and Lives

John Cowley and Alec Moodie were pioneers of the dynamical theory of electron microscopy and diffraction.  In a seminal series of papers (Proc. Phys. Soc. 1957 70(486), 70(497), 70(505) and 1958 71(533)) they presented what can only be described as an elegant, inspired and ground-breaking development for electron microscopy – the multislice or Cowley-Moodie theory.  This was the key to the quantitative calculation of diffraction intensities and images from crystalline materials, which was essential to the subsequent development of HREM.  Other major works preceded and followed, but the conjunction of their names will forever be linked with these papers.  This award commemorates not only those works, but the unparalleled inspiration that John and Alec gave to a legion of budding scientists, both in Australia and overseas.  It was therefore fitting that, soon after its formation, the Australian Society for (Electron) Microscopy (the predecessor of AMMS) established this award to recognise their achievements.

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 Eligibility:

1. Nominees must be researchers who have resided in Australia for at least five of the past seven years.

2. Nominees should have a research focus physical sciences.

3. Nominees must be financial members of AMMS at the time of application and award

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Award Criteria:

The award will be judged on the basis of a piece of original research in the physical sciences involving electron microscopy, completed in the previous four years. A significant part of the research should have been carried out in Australia

Preference is given to early- to mid-career researchers. Past applicants are encouraged to reapply.

The call for applications will be published in the AMMS newsletter and on the Austem email list in the year prior to the biennial meeting and the award will be announced a. The award will be presented during the biennial ACMM meeting. The successful applicant is selected by the awards committee

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Documents to include in the application

Applications, which can come either from or on behalf of a nominee,

• The name and reports of two referees

• A short statement of the research for which the nomination was made

• A CV (maximum 2 pages)

• A list of relevant publication

• A Brief statement of how the award will be used (individual not self-nominated will be contacted by the awards committee for their statement)

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Obligations of the Award Recipient

• The recipient is required to give a brief summary of their work at the biennial meeting. They must also submit a one page report following completion of their travel, which is to be published in the AMMS newsletter.