Amy H. Kaji MD, PhD Early Investigator Award
SAEM identifies up to three (3) recipients for the Early Investigator Award each year. This award recognizes those SAEM members who have demonstrated commitment and achievement in research during the early stage of their academic career. The Society’s
core mission includes the creation of knowledge, and this award recognizes those who have achieved early success in this sphere.
The Awards Committee is committed to an inclusive process of granting awards, reflecting the full spectrum of diversity of our membership. We encourage you to nominate a diverse pool of candidates for all SAEM awards.
The nomination period for 2025 SAEM Awards is October 1 to December 9, 2024.
Please note that the SAEM Awards Committee has developed a standardized letter template for you to use when creating your nomination packet.
Eligibility
Any SAEM member may nominate a candidate. The specific criteria for the award include:
- Training and certification in emergency medicine or an ABEM subspecialty
- Candidates must not have completed initial residency training before June 30, 2016.
- SAEM considers requests for extension of the training period requirement for various reasons, including medical concerns, disability, active duty military service. Each of these requests is reviewed on a case by case basis, and MUST BE MADE PRIOR TO THE NOMINATION DEADLINE. SAEM will approve an automatic extension of one year for childbirth within the training period. All extension requests must be made to awards@saem.org before the nomination deadline.
- Fellowship training does not affect the requirement for defining an early investigator
- Evidence of research collaboration with a senior clinical investigator/scientist (this may be in the setting of a collaborative research effort or a formal mentor-trainee relationship)
- Academic accomplishments (which may include):
- Post-graduate training/education: research fellowship, master's program, doctoral program, etc.
- Publications: original scientific manuscripts (one of the two most weighted criteria), abstracts, review articles, chapters, case reports, etc.
- Grant awards (also one of the most weighted criteria)
- Presentations at scientific meetings
- Research awards/recognition
Guidelines
The nomination must include:
- A current CV of the candidate
- A brief (1 - 2 paragraph) biographical summary
- A cover letter by the nominator addressing above areas and the impact/future potential of the work on emergency medicine and physicians (please download the standardized letter template to create your cover letter)
- While not mandatory, a maximum of 2 additional support letters may be submitted (these may use the standardized letter template or be written free-form, limited to 2 pages)
- Person nominating award candidate (include mailing address, phone and fax numbers and email address)
- Contact information of department administrator or media persons that should be notified if the award is received.