Article Equity in AMOS awards
The AMOS Awards Committee : Beth Ebert ( chair ), Tom Beer , Melissa Hart , Andrew Tupper and Matthew Wheeler
BAMOS March 2023
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The last annual call for nominations for the major awards of AMOS included changes to the descriptions and eligibility criteria for some awards — we believe , for the better .
In response to a request from the AMOS Equity and Diversity Committee , the Awards Committee examined the eligibility criteria for all of its major awards with a view to making them more equitable for everyone in our community .
What were the issues ? Christopher Taylor Award and Gibbs Medal
The Christopher Taylor Award and Gibbs Medal recognise outstanding contributions of early-mid career and late career operational staff respectively , without an age criterion being given . For both awards , the past winners were all male ( 23 past winners for the Christopher Taylor award , 4 past winners for the Gibbs Medal ).
The lack of non-male winners reflects a lack of non-male nominations rather than an Awards Committee bias , but is of great concern . Such a gender disparity would statistically be improbable if the award criteria or processes were equitable , despite the challenges of gender balance in operational areas .
A particular concern of note is that both awards encourage work outside of normal duties . This is inappropriate as it effectively discourages work-life balance and makes the awards duty-list dependent . This emphasis may partially explain the historical gender anomaly of the awards .
Whilst the development of science application in operations ( the focus of the Christopher Taylor Award ) has indeed been historically constrained by the short-term ‘ duty-list ’ focus of staff , the nature of operational work has been evolving . Our view is that AMOS should encourage excellent scientific input to operations as a core function of all operational staff and preferably within their paid work hours . Put another way , the awards should be for excellence rather than excellence-on-theside .
The restriction of the Christopher Taylor Award to meteorologists ( in recognition of Christopher Taylor ’ s work ) is also problematic . In a modern operational organisation , scientists from different AMOS-related disciplines work closely together . It is true that the nature of the work ( for example , climatology versus oceanography versus hydrology versus meteorology ) can mean that the meteorologists are more constantly in ‘ operational mode ’, but that can be accounted for by considering the context of the nominations .
Whilst these two awards are named after past Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) meteorologists , they are not BoM awards and are explicitly open to other organisations , consistent with the growth of the private sector in Australia .
Age-related criteria
Two of the AMOS awards , namely the Meyers Medal and Priestley Medal , recognise the contributions of outstanding early- and mid-career scientists , respectively .
Previously , " early career " and " mid-career " were defined by age-related criteria of no more than 32 and 45 years old , respectively , with the early-career award also allowing for career interruptions . The intention of the age criterion for the Meyers Medal was to preclude someone from being eligible who completed a PhD later in life and therefore had a ' flying start ' through a long period of successful research in the AMOS sciences prior to completing a PhD .
However , modern career paths are often not simple or linear . Scientists may join AMOS disciplines after having experienced one or more other careers . Hence the use of an age criterion to define " early career " or " mid-career " is not consistent with what may in fact correspond to a different level of experience in someone ' s current career .
Years after completion of their highest degree better reflects the accumulation of relevant experience .
Looking online , we found many definitions of " early career " or " emerging researcher ", typically from 4 to 10 years post-degree . Similarly , definitions of " mid-career " ranged from 10-20 years post-degree . We adopted the following criteria :
• Emerging researcher – up to 5 years post-degree
• Early-career researcher – up to 10 years post-degree
• Mid-career researcher – up to 15 years post-degree
Interruptions to career for personal or professional reasons are currently considered for relevant award nominations . This will continue and is explicitly noted in the award description and eligibility criteria .
Summary of changes to award eligibility criteria
In June 2022 the AMOS Council endorsed a number of changes to the awards eligibility criteria that uphold the intent of the awards while promoting greater equity . The changes are summarised below .