NZMS Early Career Research Award

This award was instituted in 2006 to foster mathematical research in New Zealand and to recognise excellent research carried out by early-career New Zealand mathematicians. Candidates will be judged on their best three published research outputs and a brief CV. Research outputs could include publications in books, journals, other peer-reviewed venues, or other types of high quality mathematical research.

Eligibility. Candidates may contact the NZMS President Bernd Krauskopf in confidence for clarification of how the following eligibility criteria apply to their particular circumstances.

• Candidates should be within ten years of confirmation of PhD.
• Candidates must have been residing in NZ during two of the previous three years. In the case where a candidate has been prevented from entering New Zealand by COVID restrictions the candidate will be treated as if they entered New Zealand at the time their job/course of study commenced.
• Candidates must be current members of the NZMS.
• No person can receive the award more than once.
• An appropriate adjustment to eligibility conditions can be made to take into account career breaks or periods of reduced workload.

Nominations and applications should include the following:

• name and affiliation of candidate;
• statement of general area of research;
• a brief CV which illustrates the nominee’s standing in the community, including: any distinctions awarded, list of any graduate students supervised, list of any grants received (including names of co-investigators), full list of publications (including names of coauthors);
• if the candidate chooses a short (no more than half page) statement detailing the effect of COVID related disruption on their research output;
• if appropriate, a justification for an adjustment of time since confirmation of PhD;
• an electronic copy (pdf) of each of their three best papers (the papers must be published or in press);
• a clear statement of the mathematical contribution of the candidate in cases of joint authorship;
• a citation, of maximum 40 words, summarising the mathematical research underlying the application (it is recommended that self-applicants approach a colleague to write this citation);
• names of two persons willing to act as referees, though the judging panel may approach referees other than those nominated. Referees should be carefully chosen; in particular, they should not have a conflict of interest and they should be able to give scientific insight into the work to be assessed. It may be easier to avoid a conflict of interest by choosing international referees.

Unsuccessful applicants from 2024 who are still eligible in 2025 will be invited to update their application so that it can be reconsidered in 2025.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President, Bernd Krauskopf by 31 August 2025. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the NZMS Early Career Award. Applicants may nominate themselves.

A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS President, and makes recommendations to the President for the Award. No person shall receive the Award more than once. The Award consists of a certificate including an appropriate citation of the awardee’s work, and will be announced and presented at the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium Dinner in December.

The Early Career Award for 2024 was presented at the NZMS Colloquium to Marie Graff  (University of Auckland) “For her outstanding contributions to wave propagation phenomena and insights in inverse problem theory, specifically convergence properties of Adaptive Eigenspace Inversion and its relation to other regularisation methods, as well as her superior algorithm that reconstructs images with quantifiable confidence”