The Russell and Gail Smith Award is an annual award given for the best writing on a scientific topic selected by an MSSU student in the previous year. The first-place recipient of the Smith Award will receive a cash prize of $750, with $250 going to second place. All students and majors are welcome to enter. Just make sure to get in your writing piece by April 8,  2022.

 There are a few requirements to be eligible to apply for the Smith Award. You must be an MSSU student in the 2021-22 academic year; must submit a writing sample(s) produced between January 1, 2021, and April 8, 2022; and must have completed 60+ credit hours (junior standing or above) by May 2022.

MSSU students should also submit a writing portfolio of one or more documents totaling 10-25 pages. The writing can be on subjects from one or more from the following areas: 

• Biology, Biomedical Science, Environmental Health, Chemistry, Biochemistry
• Pre-medical Studies, Pre-veterinary Studies/Animal Science, Conservation, Botany
• Engineering (any engineering field), Physics, Astronomy, Geology, Meteorology

The Smith Award committee welcomes writing in a variety of forms (reports, research papers, analyses, proposals, articles & more) on any scientific topic(s). They are particularly interested in receiving submissions on science topics intended for non-scientific audiences.  

The writing portfolio should be submitted with a cover page including the student’s name, S#, email, and a list of the courses/semesters in which the work was produced.

Writing portfolios, including the cover page, must be submitted as a single file attached to an email to Dr. Joey Brown, MSSU Department of English, [email protected]. 

Deadline for submission to the Russell and Gail Smith Award for Outstanding Science Writing is 10pm, Friday, April 8, 2022. The winners of this award will be announced in May. Best of luck writers.