The Pedometrics Commission of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) makes a biennial award intended to recognize up-and-coming talent in pedometrics. The award is named for Margaret Oliver, in recognition of her outstanding commitment to the promotion and encouragement of pedometricians in the early stages of their careers as well as her overall service to pedometrics.
The previous award recipients are:
2017: Dr Thomas G. Orton
2019: Dr Vera Leatitia (Titia) Mulder
2021: Dr Alexandre Wadoux
Requirements and eligibility for the award of the Margaret Oliver award
Nominees must have:
(1) received a PhD degree or equivalent no more than six years before the nomination deadline of 15 October 2023; that is, the degree must have been awarded after 15 October 2017.
(2) made high-quality contributions to pedometrics, as evidenced by contributing and leading pedometric activities (promotion of pedometrics, workshops, training, fieldwork, open source code and software development), production of knowledge (published work, conference presentations), etc. Nominees must demonstrate activities and involvement within the pedometrics commission or national and international soil science societies.
(3) at the time of the award, be active in pedometrics and with a prospect of so continuing “Pedometrics” is broadly defined as the application of mathematics or statistics in soil science.
Nominations procedure
1) Nominations for the Margaret Oliver Award should be made by a colleague or colleagues who know the person’s work well — these do not have to be IUSS members or active in pedometrics. The proposer(s) should submit the following on behalf of their nominee:
(a) a supporting letter, of up to 4 sides of A4, signed by the proposer(s), explaining why this nominee should be awarded the Margaret Oliver Award, with respect to the conditions outlined in the section “requirements and eligibility” above. The date of award of the nominee’s degree of PhD or equivalent should be clearly stated. Please note that nominations which do not include a separate signed nomination letter that addresses the criteria for the award will be returned.
(b) a curriculum vitae of no more than six pages that gives one or more the following, always showing clear relevance to pedometrics:
- Positions held and current activity
- Research undertaken, including (not limited to)
- Education of others
- Teaching courses developed
- Leadership and management of research projects
- Publications (journal, book, popular articles…)
- Service (broadly defined) to the pedometrics community, including (not limited to)
- Contribution to the Pedometrics Commission activities and Pedometron Newsletter
- Service in promoting pedometrics at the national level
- Organizing pedometrics sessions at conferences
- Any other service to the pedometics community
2) Nominations should be sent before 15 October 2023 to the Chairman of the Pedometrics award committee: Budiman Minasny at budiman.minasny@sydney.edu.au with the subject line “Oliver Award 2023”.
3) The award committee will evaluate the nominations:
- Budiman Minasny, The University of Sydney, Australia (Chairman)
- Gerard Heuvelink, Wageningen University & Research and ISRIC – World Soil Information, the Netherlands
- Murray Lark, University of Nottingham, UK
- Laura Poggio, ISRIC – World Soil Information, the Netherlands
- Lydia Mumbi Chabala, The University of Zambia, Zambia
Evaluation of nominees is based on all criteria defined above considering the number of years after the PhD degree.
