The Bob Ayres Award for Major Scientific Contributions in the Field of Industrial Ecology
We are thrilled to introduce the Bob Ayres Award, recognizing the most impactful work published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology (JIE). This award celebrates Bob Ayres's legacy of groundbreaking contributions at the intersection of industrial systems and sustainability. It is funded by the INSEAD Business School, where Bob founded and directed the Center for Management of Environmental Resources from 1992 until 2000 as Novartis Chair of Management and the Environment. His affiliation with INSEAD continued as Emeritus Professor of Economics and Political Science and Technology Management until he passed away in 2023.
Award Details
Prize: 2,500€
Frequency: Every two years
Venue: The Prize is presented at the at the end of the ISIE Annual Conference (first edition of prize to be presented in June 2025 ISIE Singapore conference).
Object: The Bob Ayres Award celebrates the work and contributions of a visionary academic, not afraid to confront major industrial problems early with great scientific and empirical rigor. In many ways he was a prophet whose warnings were not integrated including in his charge against neoclassical economic models not integrating the physics of material transformations in the economy. He is recognized as one of the fathers of the field of Industrial Ecology. The Award aims to continue Bob Ayres’s tradition of making impactful contributions of the highest quality lying at the intersection of industrial systems and sustainability.
Prize Criteria and Eligibility: The Award recognizes the article or series of articles published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology that is viewed by the selection committee to be best representing Bob Ayres’s line and style of work, being of the highest research quality and addressing major ecological questions with the highest social, environmental, economic, and policy-oriented impact. The nominated article must reflect high impact on social, environmental, and/or economic sustainability, clearly showing innovation in methodology and/or approach, and impact to at least one of the following areas: policy development, business development, academic advancement, and environmental stewardship. The selection committee will be looking for evidence that the article has induced a positive change in one of these areas, such as: a change of policy for the better in at least one country or region, business collaborative initiative like the business ecosystem alliance, the creation of a new sub discipline of academic research in industrial ecology.
No restrictions on authorship (nationality, affiliation, single or multiple authors are ok), although cross-disciplinary collaborations with broad impact on the field of industrial ecology are encouraged. There are no restrictions either with regards to the date of publication of the work in JIE. Scientific impact and quality of the work are the deciding dimensions for the award.
Nominations: Self-nominations as well as nominations from peers, supervisors, or colleagues will be accepted. They need to be sent to gara.villalba@uab.cat and gangliu@pku.edu.cn by January 31st 2025. The nomination needs to be accompanied by the full citation of the article, and a brief explanation of how the article reflects high impact on social, environmental, and/or economic sustainability, clearly showing innovation in methodology and/or approach, and impact to at least one of the following areas: policy development, business development, academic advancement, and environmental stewardship.
Selection Committee: The Committee is composed of a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 7 recognized scholars and practitioners with diverse expertise and backgrounds of the committee members to underscore the broad scope and multi-disciplinary nature of the industrial ecology field and of the prize. For the 2025 award, the committee is formed by:
Chris Kennedy; Eric Williams; Marina Fischer-Kowalski; Luk van Wassenhove; Gang Liu (JIE liaison); Gara Villalba (chair).
