Award

OPEN CALL BNCTAM Award for the Best PhD Thesis

The (Belgian) National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (BNCTAM) is pleased to announce the 2017 edition of the Award to distinguish a young scientist who has recently completed a PhD thesis in the field of Mechanics.
The Awardee will be granted with a sum of 1000 Euros. In case the awarded thesis is in the field of Computational Methods, the thesis will also be officially presented to the ECCOMAS ANNUAL AWARD FOR THE TWO BEST PhD THESES ON COMPUTATIONAL METHODS IN APPLIED SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING (www.eccomas.org). In case the awarded thesis is NOT in the field of Computational Methods, another qualified thesis could be presented to the ECCOMAS Award.

The Application: Every person who has successfully defended a thesis within the field of Mechanics in a broad sense in a Belgian University in 2017 qualifies for the Award and may submit an application.
An Open Call is launched, with the closing date on January 28, 2018. The application must be sent by email to the President of BNCTAM (JP.Ponthot@Uliege.be) AND to Patrick Guillaume (Patrick.Guillaume@vub.be). Applicants must include (all files must be pdf files):
An electronic copy of the thesis.
A 1 page summary of the thesis.
A Curriculum Vitae of the candidate.
A motivation letter (max ½ page!)

Independently from the above email the President AND Patrick Guillaume must also receive a letter from a reference person. This reference person may NOT be the promoter/adviser or the co-promoter of the PhD thesis, but he/she may be a member of the jury. In this maximum 1 page letter, the reference person must comment on:

  • What the personal and original contributions of the thesis are.
  • Why the thesis is outstanding (most important item!)
  • What the strong and the weak points of both the thesis and the candidate are.
  • What the potential impact of the thesis on the scientific community is.
  • How the thesis is related to computational methods. (in case the candidate intends to apply to the ECCOMAS Award too).

Other comments are also welcome.

First Selection: Based on the previous documents, a first selection will be made by the Executive Committee of NCTAM in order to determine a short-list of candidates. Retained candidates on the short-list will be informed by email before February 10. They will then have to prepare a short movie where the candidate explains why his/her thesis is outstanding. Candidates not willing to prepare this movie should avoid applying to the present award. There is no further indication/recommendation about this movie except that its duration is maximum 10 minutes and that the movie must be received by the President AND Patrick Guillaume no later than February 28, 2018 at noon.
Deadlines are sharp! Applications and movies received later will not enter in the selection procedure.
The language for the whole procedure (application, reference letter, movie…) is English.

Award Decision: The NCTAM Executive Committee will select the awardee and communicate the decision. The NCTAM Executive Committee is the sole judge of the whole procedure and the decisions are final.
The awardee will be invited to present his/her work to the scientific community during the next edition of the Belgian National Congress for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics during which the award winner will be officially announced.