Awards

Outstanding accomplishments in pure and applied sciences and engineering 

The Arden L. Bement Jr. Award was established in 2015 by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Arden Bement and his wife, Mrs. Louise Bement, to annually recognize a Purdue faculty member for recent outstanding accomplishments in pure and applied sciences and engineering.  

Bement achieved international recognition as director of the National Science Foundation and director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He has a long and distinguished career with Purdue, having served as the Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professor of Electroceramics, the David A. Ross Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering, the chief global affairs officer and the inaugural director of the Purdue Policy Research Institute. 

Bement received his doctoral degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Michigan. He has received seven honorary degrees in science and engineering from universities in the U.S. and abroad. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Nominations for the Arden L. Bement Jr. Award are invited from all faculty members. The recipient is selected by faculty representatives from the pure and applied sciences and engineering, and is approved by the Office of Research and the president of the university. 

The Arden L. Bement Jr. Lecture has been established to honor the award winner and present to the Purdue community the nature of the research and its contribution to the pure and applied sciences and engineering. 

The Award

The Arden L. Bement Jr. Award consists of a monetary prize of $4,000 plus an additional contribution of $7,000 to support the research of the recipient. The recipient of the Arden L. Bement Jr. Award is notified by the Office of Research.

Greatest contribution to the natural sciences 

The Herbert Newby McCoy Award was established in 1964 by Mrs. Ethel Terry McCoy in honor of her husband, a distinguished Purdue University alumnus. A native of Richmond, Indiana, Herbert Newby McCoy studied chemistry at Purdue, earning a BS degree in 1892 and an MS degree in 1893. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1898. McCoy spent the early part of his career as a professor of chemistry, teaching at Fargo College, the University of Utah and the University of Chicago. He was awarded the Willard Gibbs Medal in 1937 for his contributions to the field of chemistry. During the latter part of his career, he was president of Carnotite Reduction Co. in Chicago, and vice president of Lindsay Light and Chemical Co., also in Chicago. He died in 1945 in Los Angeles. 

To support her husband’s lifelong interest in science, Mrs. McCoy designated that the Herbert Newby McCoy annual award go to a Purdue student or faculty member making the greatest contribution of the year to the natural sciences. 

Nominations are invited from all faculty members. The recipient is selected by faculty representatives from the natural sciences and is approved by the Office of Research and the president of the university. 

The Herbert Newby McCoy Lecture has been established to honor the award winner and to present to the Purdue community the nature of the research and its contribution to the field of natural sciences. The McCoy Award is intended to honor recent or past achievement(s) of major scientific impact; the award is not a lifetime achievement award. 

The Award

The Herbert Newby McCoy Award consists of a monetary prize of $4,000 plus an additional contribution of $7,000 to support the research of the recipient. The recipient of the Herbert Newby McCoy Award is notified by the Office of Research.

Formal nominations will be accepted between Sept. 1 and Dec. 1 each year. Nominations are made by colleagues; self-nominations will not be reviewed. 

Eligibility

Recipients are restricted to the Purdue West Lafayette and Purdue in Indianapolis locations. Investigators are eligible to receive only one of the universitywide research awards during their career — the Lu Ann Aday Award, the Arden L. Bement Jr. Award or the Herbert Newby McCoy Award.

Nomination Instructions

Nomination packets should be submitted electronically as a single PDF file to evprawards@purdue.edu. Please send any questions or requests for additional information to evprawards@purdue.edu. 

1. A concise summary statement, no more than two pages that describes the impact and significance of the nominee’s recent work justifying nomination for the award. 
2. The nominee’s curriculum vitae. 
3. Three external letters supporting the impact and significance of the nominee’s contribution to the area of research recognized by the award. 
4. A brief statement of the letter writers’ expertise, distinctions and relationship, if any, to the nominee. 

Review Process

A selection committee consisting of distinguished faculty including past award winners is appointed by the executive vice president for research. 

To help the selection committee appreciate the impact and significance of the nominee’s work, nominators (or their representatives) will be invited to make a brief presentation and answer questions during the selection committee meeting. This presentation carries substantial weight in the selection process as it allows committee members to more fully understand the impact of the work. 

The committee’s final recommendation is submitted to the executive vice president for research for approval.