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Each year, SOT Awards honor deserving toxicologists across the discipline for their work in toxicology. Two such SOT Awards—the Achievement Award and the Leading Edge in Basic Science Award—specifically recognize investigators for recent and significant contributions to the field.

You are encouraged to nominate deserving colleagues for these awards to acknowledge their cutting-edge research by the October 9 deadline. All SOT Awards have their own criteria, so be sure to read each award description closely when making your nomination.

Achievement Award

The Achievement Award is presented to an SOT member who, within 15 years since obtaining the highest earned degree (in the year of the SOT Annual Meeting), has made significant contributions to toxicology. Nominate your colleagues who in 2022 are within 15 years of obtaining the highest degree (i.e., who received their highest degree in 2007 or later) and have achieved success both early in their careers as well as throughout their careers.

Leading Edge in Basic Science Award

The Leading Edge in Basic Science Award is presented to a scientist who, based on research, has made a recent (within the last five years), seminal scientific contribution/advance to understanding fundamental mechanisms of toxicity. The recipient may or may not be an SOT member and should be a respected basic scientist whose research findings are likely to have a pervasive impact on the field of toxicology.

The recipient of the Leading Edge in Basic Science Award will be invited to present an Award Lecture during the 2022 SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in San Diego, California.

Making a Nomination

Nominations for either award should include both a primary and a secondary letter of nomination from Full members of the Society that provide in layman’s terms an analysis of the nominee’s significant contributions to toxicology and how they apply to the award criteria. The strongest nomination packages include two letters that are distinct from one another to offer more detailed support of the candidate’s qualifications. Nomination packages that include very similar letters of nomination offer less information than those that include recommendations that are varied in content. Letters of nomination should be specific and descriptive while also maintaining a level of concision. The Awards Committee will review only the two letters required to complete the nomination; no additional letters will be considered.

Nominations also should include the nominee’s up-to-date CV. For national SOT Awards, such as the Achievement Award and Leading Edge in Basic Science Award, the Awards Committee requires a standardized length for CVs included in nomination packages. CVs must be a maximum of 10 pages in length and should highlight the candidate’s most significant professional accomplishments as they relate to the criteria for the award. Awards Committee members are required to review only 10 pages of each CV; therefore, submitting a longer CV does not strengthen an award nomination.

For more information on making a nomination, please review the “Awards Review Process and FAQs” web page of the SOT website. Please direct any inquiries to SOT Headquarters.

These are opportunities to honor your colleagues for their outstanding recent accomplishments; you are encouraged to submit your nominations by October 9.

Please note that to ensure a diversity of nominees, there is a two-year grace period for national SOT Awards. Preference will be given to nominees who have not received one of the following SOT awards in the past two years: Achievement, Arnold J. Lehman, Distinguished Toxicology Scholar, Education, Enhancement of Animal Welfare, Founders, Leading Edge in Basic Science, Merit, Public Communications, Toxicologist Mentoring, Translational Impact, Translational/Bridging Travel, and Undergraduate Educator Awards.