The Award

[Joe Chetcuti]

I'd like to thank Steve Blomer for allowing me to conduct the 3rd annual Robert Linford Award. The award goes to the person who best follows the example Robert set in regards to research ability, helpfulness to colleagues, and for contributing good material to the Jtrforums message boards.


The 2021 award was won by Howard & Nina Brown, and the 2022 winner was Debra Arif.


All Jtrforum members are eligible to cast their vote for the award. The voting format that was used last year worked out just fine, so we'll do it again. I will go over the voting guidelines tomorrow on this thread.

[Gary Barnett]

I feel that at this time of the year, in the run-up to the voting, we should unearth a few of Robert’s classic witticisms.

I know he was an extremely competent researcher, but more importantly, IMHO, he was a right laugh.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve backtracked on some of what I fondly imagined were my ‘significant’ posts/threads and realised that the most significant thing about them was Robert’s witty asides.

[Joe Chetcuti]

THE VOTING FORMAT

The voting will take place from Oct 18th through Nov 18th. Any Jtrforums member can send me a private message on this website. They can give me their top selection vote for anyone they choose for the award, and they can give me their second selection vote for the award, too.

Jtrforums members who know my personal email address on gmail can send me their top two voting selections to that email address, if they prefer.

I will not disclose anybody's vote. I promise that. Everybody gets a maximum of one top selection vote and one second selection vote.

On Nov 19th, I will tally up the top selection votes. The person who receives the most top selection votes will be immediately contacted by me. I will then privately ask that person if he (or she) will accept the award. If that person says "yes" then we will have ourselves a champion. I will announce the winner's name on this thread on Dec 8th, the anniversary date of Robert's passing.

But if that person says "no" and doesn't accept the award, then that will still be alright. What I will then do is gather the names of the people who voted for this person, and I will use their second selection votes instead. I will tally the votes again, and we will have a different winner. I will then ask that winner if he (or she) will accept the award, and hopefully that person will say "yes".

And finally...

If you send me a private message on this web site to cast your vote, you can begin by clicking into my name to get to my User Profile page. Once you're on that page, you'll need to click the private message button first before typing your message to inform me of your vote. If you do not hit the private message button, then your message will not be private, and it can be viewed by other Jtrforums members.

We're trying to keep this a private ballot, so be sure to hit the private message button.

The voting begins one month from now on Oct 18th!

[Tom_Wescott]

Joe, it's a wonderful thing you're doing - honoring RCL's memory while at the same time encouraging his high standards become a benchmark for present and future researchers.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott