Poster Awards

Judging Panel

The CELL Division Program Chair, or delegate, shall assemble a Judging Panel before the General Poster Session of the Spring National Meeting. The number of judges on the Judging Panel depends on the number of posters on the List of Qualified Posters where each judge shall not review more than 10 posters. The minimum number of judges on the Judging Panel shall not be less than five judges notwithstanding the number of posters in the Qualified Poster List. The term of the Judging Panel shall expire when then winners of the Award are honored at the Division Awards Banquet.

Qualified List

Before the General Poster Session at the ACS Spring Annual Meeting, the Division Program Chair shall distribute the List of Qualified Posters to members of the Judging Panel. The Judging Panel shall only review posters that are on the List of Qualified Posters assigned to them during the General Poster Session at the ACS Spring National Meeting. The Program Chair shall assign each ACS CELL Division Springer Student Poster Award Score Sheet judge an equal number of posters for judging. In keeping with ACS Poster Session regulations, the presenting authors are required to be standing by their poster at the General Poster session to discuss their work to members of the Judging Panel. Posters shall be disqualified if the presenting author is not standing by the poster to discuss their work to members of the Judging Panel. The Program Chair, or delegate, shall inform the winners of the result at the end of the General Poster Session.

Judging Criteria

To determine the winner, members of the Judging Panel shall rank the posters while considering the following criteria.

• Research – originality and creativity
• Content – clear objectives, methods, conclusions and relevance of material presented
• Appearance – attractiveness of poster, ease of comprehension, quality of illustrations
• Communication – clarity of explanation of work by the student

Method to Select Winners

Judging shall be completed in two stages. In the first stage, judges shall rank the posters assigned to them by the Program Chair in order of preference while considering the judging criteria set forth elsewhere. When ranking is completed, each judge shall submit their top ranked poster to the Program Chair. The top ranked posters by each judge shall advance to the second stage. In the second stage, all judges shall numerically rank every posters advanced to the second stage. Numerical ranking means that judges shall rank the posters in order of preference with the number one as the most preferred and through as many numbers as posters. Judges shall submit their numerical ranking of all posters still in the second stage to the Program Chair. The Program Chair shall calculate the score for each poster by adding the numeric ranking from all judges. The poster receiving the lowest score shall be the first-place winner, the poster receiving the second-lowest score shall be the second place winner and the poster receiving the third lowest score shall be the third place winner.

The decision of the Panel of Judges is final and irrevocable, and is not subject to appeal.

Conflicts of Interest and Ethical Standards

The decision of the Panel of Judges is final and irrevocable, and is not subject to appeal. The Judging Panel shall not include a presenting author’s current academic advisors, co-authors within the past three years, business partners, employers, employees or anyone that could be perceived as biased in selecting the winner of the Award.