The Peter G. Martin Award for mid-career achievement was established in 2009 thanks to a generous gift from Peter Martin, a former President of CASCA and Professor at the University of Toronto.
The Martin Award is considered every second year, for presentation in odd-numbered years, to a mid-career astronomer in recognition of significant contributions to astronomical research. To be eligible, the nominee must be a member of CASCA in good standing, and a Canadian astronomer or an astronomer working in Canada. The nominee will normally have received his or her PhD degree between 10 and 20 years previously; allowances will be made for extended leaves of up to two years, e.g. maternity, paternity or parental leaves, medical leaves, etc. However, no individual may be nominated for both the Richer (early career) and Martin (mid-career) prizes in the same year.
The recipient shall be invited to address the Society at its Annual General Meeting. The nomination package must be submitted entirely in electronic form to the Chair of the Awards committee and should consist of:
- A letter of nomination (self-nominations are accepted) detailing the specific achievement for which the candidate is being nominated, and providing evidence that the achievement has had a significant impact in the field. Nomination letters should be written in the third person, without reference to nominator identity, and without institutional letterhead or other identifiers. This ensures that self- and non-self nominations are not distinguishable;
- The CV of the nominee;
In addition three external letters of support (e.g., from international experts in the nominee’s field) should be sent directly to the Chair of the awards committee (to ensure confidentiality of references). No letter should exceed two pages in length.
The deadline for nominations for the 2025 Award is 15 January 2025.
2023 Peter G. Martin Award
CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Erik Rosolowsky as the recipient of the 2023 Peter G. Martin Award for mid-career achievement.
Dr. Rosolowsky received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, studying the formation of molecular clouds in nearby galaxies, and he is currently a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Alberta. In his impactful career, he has been an international leader in the study of star formation in both Galactic and extragalactic contexts and has made several novel contributions to data analysis techniques that have enabled significant research by others. Dr. Rosolowsky has demonstrated growing leadership in these fields, notably through the international, multi-observatory “Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies” (PHANGS) megaproject. His earlier work on Galactic star formation produced several key publications that led the way to future large-scale surveys of emission from star-forming clouds and introduced “dendograms” as a new way of defining structure in hierarchical systems, a method now widely used throughout the community. His research in extragalactic star formation followed a similar pattern, leading or being a major contributor to seminal surveys that took advantage of the rise of high-resolution instruments over the last decade to drive forward our understanding of the formation of the molecular ISM and stars in distant galaxies.
CASCA is delighted to recognize Dr. Rosolowsky’s achievements with this award.
| 2021 |  |
Sara Ellison | Galaxy Evolution, Star formation |
| 2019 |  |
Bryan Gaensler |
Radio Astronomy, Cosmic Magnetism |
| 2017 |  |
Ingrid Stairs |
Pulsars and general relativity |
| 2015 |  |
Laura Ferrarese |
Massive Galaxies, Globular Clusters, and Everything In Between |
| 2013 |  |
Victoria Kaspi |
‘Grand Unification’ of Neutron Stars |
| 2011 |  |
Roberto Abraham |
Some thoughts on galaxies and graduate students |
| 2009 |  |
René Doyon |
On Infrared Instrumentation and Searching for Pale Red Dots |