If you are a first time nominator, you may expect to spend approximately 20 hours researching and preparing a National Medal of Science nomination.

There are five sections to the nomination form. You will be asked to enter information about the nominee, their education, employment history, honors and awards, a proposed citation for the award, a narrative about the nominee's work, publications, and the names of the writers of the letters of support.

All of the nominee information described below is mandatory, unless identified as optional.

The first section pertains to the nominee's contact information. Please provide the following information:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Address
• Email
• Phone Number
• Organization with which the nominee is associated
• Major Discipline (drop-down menu)
• Secondary Discipline (drop-down menu) (optional)

The second section covers the nominee's education, positions held, honors and awards, and a proposed citation. The proposed citation will be used by the committee to assess the "big-picture" contributions of the nominee. It must be concise (approximately 40 words) and compelling to a committee with broad expertise. You must enter:

• At least one, and as many as six, of the nominee's degrees
• Any pertinent positions the nominee has held
• Notable Honors received
• A proposed citation

The third section is a narrative statement which covers the nominee's qualifications for the National Medal of Science. The statement should be no more than 3 pages long. Please refer to the selection considerations on the Nominee Information for guidance in providing information that will be most helpful to the selection committee.

The fourth section covers the nominee's publications and patents. The maximum allowable amount is 10, and a short one sentence commentary explaining the impact of each publication or patent is required.

The fifth section identifies the nominee's letter writers. Three letter writers not from the nominee's home institution must be identified for each nomination. The system will automatically send an email to these letter writers to notify them that their assistance is requested when the information is saved the first time. You will need to enter the following:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Address
• Email
• Phone Number
• Organization

Please note that you may submit up to two more references, in addition to the ones in this section, for a total of no more than five letters. These additional reference letters may be sent electronically, in PDF format, to the project manager at nms@nsf.gov. The letters may also be sent on paper to the mailing address below.

The portfolio of reference letters should make a strong case for science but should not exclude activities that are peripheral to the science. At least three of the letters should strongly address the scientific contributions.

Once you have correctly entered and saved required data in these five sections, the submit button will become available.

Inquiries

For further information concerning the award program or nomination process, please email nms@nsf.gov