The Henri Abraham Award was established to recognize “Long Distinguished and Meritorious Service to IUPAP” by a person who has not served on Executive Council of IUPAP such as President nor a Commission Chair. It is named after an outstanding physicist Prof. Henri Abraham, who as the founding Secretary General of IUPAP from 1922 till his death in Auschwitz in 1943 had selflessly contributed to the advancement of our Union. The awardees receive a certificate of recognition and gratitude and are portrayed on the IUPAP website and through other communication means.

Long service is defined to be of more than nine years. Meritorious service is recognized by the Executive Council as having significantly helped in advancing and sustaining the mission of IUPAP. However, the eligibility criterion of nine years of service is far too long, especially since the IUPAP Secretariat does not stay in one place but moves from time-to-time which virtually eliminates an already small pool of eligible candidates.

The proposal that the eligibility for the Henri Abraham prize be lowered from nine to five years for evaluating potential candidates for distinguished and meritorious service was discussed and unanimously approved by the Executive Council during its first meeting on 15 January 2025.

The new guideline from January 2025 would be “The Henri Abraham Award recognizes Long (5 years or more) Distinguished and Meritorious Service to the IUPAP by a person who has not been a member of the Executive Council or a Commission Chair of IUPAP”.

Henri Abraham (1868–1943) was a French physicist who made important contributions to the science of radio waves. He performed some of the first measurements of the propagation velocity of radio waves, helped develop France’s first triode vacuum tube, and with Eugene Bloch invented the astable multivibrator. Henri Abraham contributed actively as the Secretary General of IUPAP from 1922 till his death in Auschwitz in 1943.

The call for Nominations will be open yearly and announced in the Calls for Nominations page. If you would like to nominate a candidate for this prize, please do it during the time that the call is open. Kindly include in the nomination:

• The nominee’s CV
• A note (no longer than 1 page) on how the nominee contributed to IUPAP, why those contributions are meritorious and the dates of the term of the IUPAP service rendered
• A statement signed by the nominator saying that, to the best of their knowledge, there are no concerns that IUPAP should be aware of regarding the nominee not satisfying the expectation that he/she meets the commonly held standards of professional ethics and integrity

All nominations should be complete, with all files in pdf, and emailed to: secretariat@iupap.org with subject “Henri Abraham Award” by the established deadline.