60th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences and 1st Policy Congress 

In memory of the humanistic vision of Sir Geoffrey Vickers, the integrative vision of Anatol Rapoport, and the collectivist vision of Margaret Mead, and in recognition of their deep commitment to, and belief in, the power of young people to contribute creatively to the betterment of the human condition, a plaque and check for $500 will be awarded for the best student paper in each of the three award domains.  The Vickers Award, the Rapoport Award, and the Mead Award recognize outstanding work done in the domain of the systems sciences, and are considered the most prestigious prizes in the field at the pre-doctoral level.  Submissions that draw on pespectives covered by any of these three Awards are warmly invited. Generally speaking, it will be in the author's best interest to indicate for which award they wish to have their submission considered.

• The competition takes place only once a year.

• It is open to all students from any country.

• The student must actively request that their paper be considered for the Vickers Award OR the Rapoport Award OR the Mead Award OR any combination of the three.  However, a paper may receive only one award.

• The student must submit the paper to the ISSS Office in addition to submitting the paper online to the Journals site. The eMail to the ISSS Office accompanying the paper should indicate that the student wishes this paper to be submitted for the Award(s) of their interest.

• Only student authored papers are eligible for consideration, and preference will be given to individually authored work. If any part of the paper is the work of a student’s supervisor or other mentor, then the paper is not eligible.

• Only one paper per student should be submitted for consideration in any given year.A single outstanding paper will be selected each year for each award category (Awards will no longer be split between two winners).

• A full paper must be submitted by the publication deadline and will be included on the web Journals.isss.org proceedings unless stated otherwise by the Student Award committee.

• Certification must be provided showing that this work was performed while the contestant was a student and, in the case of recent graduates, that it has been submitted for consideration no later than one year from the date of the award of their terminal degree (Bachelor's, Master's, or Doctorate).

• Previous winners of this Award Competition may not enter again.

• Student papers will be judged for each Award by separate committees convened by the ISSS board of directors.

• In any given year, any one or even up to all three Awards may not given if no paper is found to qualify for the established Award categories.  As such, none of these Award need be granted obligatorily each year, but will only be bestowed if merited by specific submissions.

A student registration form and the student registration fee should accompany the paper submission. The registration fee includes membership in the ISSS for the following year, with the usual membership benefits.

The successful paper may be scheduled for presentation in a plenary session during the conference at the discretion of the President and the Program Committee.

If it is not possible for the student to travel to the conference, it may be possible to arrange for a video link (depending on the facilities available to the conference) or another person may make the presentation on the student's behalf. The preferred options are as follows and in order of preference:

• that the winning Vickers, Rapoport, and Mead Award papers be presented in Plenary in person by the winners; or

• that they be presented "virtually"; or

• that they be presented in absentia by a designated proxy as long as the student has also submitted and paid for registration of their paper.