David Hull Prize

The ISHPSSB Committee has just announced a prize in the name of the late David Hull, which is both appropriate and one that will contribute to the profession. Details under the fold.

The 2011 ISHPSSB David Hull Prize Competition

ISHPSSB seeks nominations for the 2011 David L. Hull Prize for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology. The David L. Hull Prize honors an extraordinary contribution to scholarship and service that promotes interdisciplinary connections between history, philosophy, social studies, and biology. In the spirit of David Hull’s own service to the profession and his support for the contributions the advancement of people at early stages of their careers, the Prize is not restricted to recognition of a lifetime of achievement, but may be awarded to individuals at any stage of their career to acknowledge and promote significant efforts they have made that combine scholarship and service.

It is appropriate to name this prize in honor of David Hull, a former president of our society who set a very high standard of interdisciplinary scholarship in his scholarly work, but also did important leg work to help found the philosophy of biology and worked tirelessly to build bridges among our disciplines. He served as President of three very different societies (ISHPSSB (1991-1992), the Philosophy of Science Association (1985-6), and the Society of Systematic Zoologists (1984-5)), performed a great deal of service for these and a number of other societies, and did a great deal to foster the publication of interesting work in all of our disciplines. Among other things, David served for 21 years as General Editor of the University of Chicago Press Series in the Conceptual Foundations of Science and as a member of about 15 editorial boards of journals and encyclopedias. David was a staunch and proud advocate of gay rights who brought the virtues of advocacy to his professional life. He always sought to help those to whom doors were closed and was especially noteworthy for the many ways in which he assisted people at the beginning their careers, helping them, inter alia, to overcome any barriers put in their way and to improve their publications even when their viewpoints were strongly contrary to his own.

Winners of the David L. Hull Prize will receive a medal in honor of their contributions to scholarship and service. We anticipate that the first medal will be awarded at the 2011 meeting in Salt Lake City.

A complete nomination package will consist of two letters of nomination each signed by at least one member of ISHPSSB and a current curriculum vitae of the candidate. Because of the late announcement this year, the deadline for nominations will be 1 January, 2011; in future we anticipate that the deadline will be 1 July, approximately one year before the next annual meeting of ISHPSSB. The nomination package must be sent to the Chair of the Committee, either by email with attachments (preferred) or by ordinary post. The address to which to send nominations is at the end of this announcement.

The David L. Hull Prize Committee for 2011 consists of

Richard M. Burian, Chair
Garland Allen
Lindley Darden
Michael Dietrich
Jean Gayon
Jim Griesemer
V. Betty Smocovitis
Michel Morange
Maria Jesús Santesmases

Nominations should be mailed to Richard Burian either at rmburian@vt.edu or to
Richard M. Burian
Chair, Hull Prize Committee
Department of Philosophy – 0126
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24060
USA