Three awards were conferred during the 2016 NARST annual international conference, held in Baltimore, MD.

Outstanding Doctoral Research Award 

This award recognizes the top nominated dissertation with the potential to have the greatest impact in the field of science education. This year’s recipient was Dr. Anna MacPherson, from the American Museum of Natural History, advised by Dr. Jonathan Osborne from Stanford University. The ODRA committee was chaired by Dr. Jian Wang and Dr. Gail Richmond. The committee members, who read and ranked all the dissertations, were Drs. Len Annetta, Orit Ben-Zvi Assaraf, Brendan Callahan, Daniel Capps, Dan Carpenter, Tracy Huziak-Clark, Cory Forbes, Jacqueline McDonnough, Muhsin Meneske, Vanashri Nargund-Joshi, Sissy Wong, and Hsin-Kai Wu.

Early Career Research Award 

This award is given to a researcher, within the first seven years after completion of the doctoral degree, who demonstrates the greatest potential to make outstanding and continuing contributions to research in science education. This year’s recipient was Dr. Richard L. Lamb from Washington State University. THE ECRA was chaired by Dr. Julia Clark and Dr. Julia Plummer. The ECRA committee members were Drs. Christiana Omoifo, Katherine McNeill, Mijung Kim, James Minogue, Krista Adams, Mauricio Pietrocola, Wendy Frazier, Gary Holliday, and Cindy Hmelo-Silver.

Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research Award

NARST’s most prestigious award is given this year to Dr. Lynn Dierking, Dr. John Falk and Dr. Dana Zeidler. The awards were presented by the two co-chairs of the committee: Dr. J. Randy McGinnis and Dr. Peter A. Okebukola. The DCA committee members were Drs. Alejandro Martinez Gallard, Meschach Ogunniyi, Anita Roychoudhury, Grady Venville, Mansoor Niaz, Robert Sherwood, and Dale Baker.