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If you know an individual who has made outstanding contributions in risk assessment or safety decision-making, consider nominating them for the SOT Arnold J. Lehman Award or the SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology).

The nomination deadline for both awards is October 9 and required nomination materials include a primary and secondary letter of support as well as the nominee’s up-to-date CV (limited to 10 pages).

Arnold J. Lehman Award

The Arnold J. Lehman Award recognizes an individual who has made a major contribution to risk assessment and/or the regulation of chemical agents, including pharmaceuticals. The contribution may have resulted from the application of sound scientific principles to regulation and/or from research activities that have significantly influenced the regulatory process.

Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology)

Despite the word “founder” in its name, any Full, Emeritus, or Retired Full SOT member is eligible for the SOT Founders Award (for Outstanding Leadership in Toxicology). This award honors a member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in fostering the role of toxicological sciences in safety decision-making through the development and/or application of state-of-the-art approaches that elucidate, with a high degree of confidence, the distinctions for humans between safe and unsafe levels of exposures to chemical and physical agents.

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. Letters of nomination should be specific and descriptive while remaining concise. 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 that is limited to 10 pages in length; it 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, so 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.

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.