SAIR Prize Rules and Guidance

SAIR Prize Selection and Administration Rules (Revised Edition)

Chapter I: General Provisions and Prize Structure

The initial annual prize amount shall be set at one hundred thousand US dollars ($100,000). Said principal amount shall be subject to proportional increase contingent upon the receipt of subsequent charitable donations.
The prize may be awarded jointly to a maximum of three (3) individuals, provided that such joint award shall exclusively recognize collaborative work undertaken and shared by the said recipients.
The prize may be formally designated with the name of a donor prior to the inaugural conferral. Sponsors shall have no standing, authority, or participation in the selection of the recipient(s) and shall be strictly prohibited from accessing any nomination materials. In the event that a donor is involved in incidents that materially violate commercial ethics, academic integrity, or severely damage the public reputation of this prize, SAIR reserves the unilateral right to revoke such naming designation.
The Selection Committee reserves the absolute right and sole discretion to withhold the conferral of the prize in any given year.

Chapter II: Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility is primarily restricted to early-career scientists. As a general guideline, candidates should be within fifteen (15) years of receiving their highest academic degree, thereby mitigating risks associated with absolute age-based employment discrimination. The Selection Committee shall retain final adjudicatory authority over borderline eligibility cases. Any interested party may submit to the Committee relevant documentation regarding career interruptions or other extenuating circumstances materially affecting a candidate's career stage.
The candidate's primary institutional affiliation must be situated within the United States of America, encompassing academic, industrial, or governmental sectors. Candidates must independently verify and ensure that their participation and acceptance of the prize do not violate the conflict of interest or anti-corruption compliance policies of their respective employers (particularly regarding government and public institutions). Candidates employed by a government agency or other public institution are responsible for obtaining any approval their employer requires before accepting the prize.
The nominated work must involve the substantive application of artificial intelligence (AI) and must have yielded verifiable advancements in the fields of physics or astronomy. Incidental or peripheral use of AI shall not satisfy this criterion. Purely theoretical proposals or prospective research plans are expressly excluded from consideration.
Employees, Board Members, Selection Committee Members, and Organizing Committee Members of SAIR, together with their immediate family members, are strictly ineligible for nomination.

Chapter III: Nomination Procedures and Material Specifications

Nominations may be submitted by any natural person, including by means of self-nomination.
Each nomination dossier must be supported by two (2) letters of recommendation from individuals possessing firsthand knowledge of the nominated work. Neither the candidate nor the nominating party may serve as a recommender. All recommendation letters shall remain strictly confidential and shall not be disclosed to the candidate or the nominating party.
Third-Party Nominations: The nominator shall submit a statement of rationale not exceeding four hundred (400) words (or one page in length, if submitted as a PDF), a brief paragraph detailing the candidate's specific personal contributions, and the contact information for two (2) recommenders. Subsequently, the candidate must submit a description of the work, provide up to five (5) items of evidentiary support, attach a Curriculum Vitae (CV), and formally verify or amend the nominator's statement of contributions.
Self-Nominations: The candidate shall submit a description of the work not exceeding four hundred and fifty (450) words, a statement of personal contribution not exceeding one hundred and fifty (150) words, up to five (5) items of evidentiary support, a Curriculum Vitae (CV), and the contact information for two (2) recommenders.
Evidentiary Support: Evidence shall consist of one (1) to five (5) distinct items demonstrating the work and enabling independent verification by third parties. Acceptable items include: published academic papers, arXiv preprints, open-source code repositories, publicly available models or datasets, or officially named experiments, instruments, surveys, or systems wherein the work is implemented. For unpublished or non-public work, a written description must be provided in lieu thereof, explicitly identifying external parties who utilize or have verified said work. In the case of academic papers, the candidate must disclose their authorship position and the total number of co-authors. The candidate must designate one (1) item as the primary evidence, which shall be accorded priority review by the Committee.
Withdrawal of Nomination: A nominator may unilaterally withdraw a nomination at any time prior to the January 10 deadline. In the event of a withdrawal by a third-party nominator subsequent to the candidate's completion of their requisite submissions, the candidate retains the right to convert the application into a self-nomination and proceed accordingly. A candidate may withdraw their application at any time prior to the final adjudication of the winner.
Descriptions of non-public work shall be restricted to a level of detail legally or administratively permissible for a public conference abstract. Verification of the candidate's role by their employer shall only be solicited during the final stage of evaluation, and solely upon the express prior consent of the candidate.
Classified information or work subject to national security restrictions shall under no circumstances be described or submitted as evidentiary support.
An individual may be considered for the prize a maximum of three (3) times in total. A nomination shall only be counted against this limit upon its formal presentation to the Selection Committee. Unsuccessful nominations may be carried forward to subsequent award cycles, provided that explicit re-confirmation is obtained from the original nominator (or the candidate in self-nominations) and both recommenders.

Chapter IV: Statutory Deadlines and Scheduling

The nomination period shall commence at 1:45 PM Pacific Time on October 16, 2026, and shall terminate on January 10, 2027. Candidates nominated proximate to the deadline shall be granted a statutory grace period of twenty-one (21) days from the date of invitation to complete their submissions, which may lawfully extend beyond the January 10 deadline.
Recommendation letters must be received no later than January 29, 2027. Substitute recommenders designated after January 15 shall be granted a fourteen (14) day submission window. No materials whatsoever shall be accepted after February 12.
The recipient(s) shall be publicly announced in April of 2027, with the prize formally conferred at an awards ceremony scheduled for May thereof.
Prize funds shall be disbursed directly to the individual recipient(s). The recipient(s) shall bear sole responsibility for all local, state, and federal tax liabilities associated with the prize; SAIR shall issue applicable tax reporting documentation in accordance with the law. Subject to Committee approval, if a recipient is prohibited from accepting cash awards due to compliance restrictions related to their employment, SAIR may direct the full prize amount as a charitable donation to a designated non-profit academic or scientific institution. Recipient(s) are subject to a mandatory obligation to attend the awards ceremony in person; SAIR shall bear the associated travel expenses.

Chapter V: Selection Body and Voting Mechanics

The recipient(s) shall be selected by an independent Selection Committee. The decisions of the Committee shall be final, binding, and not subject to appeal.
Barry Barish shall exercise administrative oversight of the prize but shall hold no voting rights in the selection of the winner. Neither SAIR nor Barry Barish shall suggest, endorse, or nominate any specific candidate at any stage, including during the nomination solicitation period.
Administrative staff shall be strictly limited to factual verification. Staff shall possess no authority to evaluate the substantive merit of any candidate or to disqualify any candidate; all disputes regarding eligibility shall be referred to the Selection Committee for binding resolution.
The Committee's evaluation shall be strictly governed by the following four (4) core criteria: demonstrated and verifiable impact on physics or astronomy; substantive implementation or advancement of AI; the specific personal contributions of the candidate; and the candidate's future potential.
Every complete and valid nomination dossier shall be reviewed and scored by no fewer than two (2) Committee members, provided that at least one (1) such reviewer must be a qualified physicist or astronomer.
The Committee shall compile an initial longlist and appoint a designated expert to rigorously verify each longlisted candidate's primary evidence against their submitted claims. The Committee shall subsequently narrow the selection to between five (5) and eight (8) finalists, and shall select the ultimate recipient(s) at a dedicated meeting. All non-conflicted Committee members must be present at said meeting or cast a valid written vote.
Prior to any award conferral, a Committee member must conduct a due diligence interview with an independent third party selected by the Committee—who is familiar with the work but is neither the nominator, recommender, nor in the direct reporting line of the candidate—to verify the candidate's specific role, and must confirm the interview notes with said third party. Employer confirmation standing alone shall be deemed legally insufficient. Finalists may designate up to three (3) individuals to be excluded from contact. In the event a suitable independent verifier cannot be reached, the candidate shall be deemed ineligible for that year, and the nomination shall be carried forward.
Conflicts of Interest: Committee members must automatically recuse themselves from evaluating any nomination in which they: participated in the nomination process; co-authored an academic paper with the candidate (where total authors number fewer than 50) within the preceding four (4) years; share a departmental or research group affiliation; hold or have held a supervisory or mentee relationship with the candidate; possess a financial relationship (including employment, consulting, equity, or grant approval); or are employed by or advise an entity directly competing with the candidate's employer regarding the nominated work. The Committee Chair shall have final binding authority over disputed recusals.
In the event of a tie between two distinct candidates, the Committee shall conduct a subsequent vote. In the event of a tie between awarding the prize and withholding the prize, the resolution shall be to withhold the prize for that year.
No nomination shall be disqualified by automated computational means. AI tools under the secure control of SAIR may be utilized to assist staff in organizing and verifying materials, but are strictly prohibited from exercising any substantive decision-making authority. Such AI tools shall have no access to recommendation letters uploaded via the secure portal. Recommendation letters submitted via electronic mail may inadvertently be exposed to AI processing prior to official download and sealing by administrative staff. By submitting materials, all individuals participating in the nomination and recommendation processes for this prize are deemed to explicitly consent to the processing of their data by SAIR and its authorized systems under strict confidentiality protocols.
All nomination materials, recommendation letters, scoring data, and internal Committee deliberations shall be classified as strictly confidential commercial information. No founder, donor, or staff member shall be granted access to ranking data prior to the formalization of the final decision.
Disqualification and Revocation: In the event the Committee determines a candidate has made a materially false statement of fact, subject to a fourteen (14) day written right of reply for the candidate, the nomination shall be immediately disqualified and permanently barred from future consideration. Upon a proven finding of academic fraud in the winning work, the organization reserves the statutory right to revoke and reclaim the conferred prize and associated funds. To ensure the enforceability of this right of recovery, the recipient(s) shall be required to formally execute a legally binding Clawback Agreement prior to the disbursement of prize funds.
The Selection Committee shall conduct a formal review of the adjudication rules (specifically Rules 25 through 30, 32, and 33) at its inaugural meeting. Any subsequent amendments to the rules shall not impose obligations or requirements upon the candidates beyond those expressly enumerated herein.

SAIR Prize: privacy

Last updated: October 16, 2026

This page covers the SAIR Prize: its nomination portal and its email (milo@sair.foundation). The prize is run by The Foundation for Science and AI Research (SAIR).

What we collect

Everything entered in the nomination portal: names, contact details and affiliations; the nomination or entry and the answers to its questions; the evidence list and CV; the letters; and the year and type of the candidate's highest degree.

What we use it for

Only to run the prize: checking eligibility, the selection committee's reading, and writing to you about the candidacy. By submitting material, you agree to its use as described here (Rule 31).

Who sees it

The selection committee, and two named members of SAIR's staff who run the prize. Sponsors never see nomination material.

If a candidacy is longlisted, an expert named by the committee checks its main piece of evidence against what is claimed (Rule 27). Before any award, a member of the committee speaks about the candidate's part in the work with someone the committee chooses, and we tell the candidate first; the candidate may name up to three people we must not contact (Rule 28).

Letters are sealed. The candidate and the nominator never see a letter or learn what it says. The two staff members can open a letter only to check that the file opens, and they record each time they do. We would disclose a letter only if legally compelled.

Our portal provider, OpenWater, runs the system, and its support staff can reach it to keep it running.

AI tools

We may use AI tools under SAIR's control to help staff organize and check nomination material. They never see letters uploaded through the portal. A letter sent to us by email may be seen by them before staff upload and seal it. They never decide anything about a candidacy: people read it, and the selection committee judges it.

Year of highest degree

Used only for the early-career guideline. Seen by the two staff members, and shown to the committee only if it is ruling on an edge case.

How long we keep it

You may withdraw and have your candidacy deleted at any time before the decision. After the decision, the record is kept for this cycle and two further cycles.

Candidacies that never reach the committee's reading (declined, withdrawn or never completed) are deleted after nominations close. We keep only a one-line log: name, dates and outcome.

People named on a form who are never contacted are deleted at the end of the cycle.

A letter sent by email is deleted from our mailbox once it is uploaded.

Confidentiality

Apart from the checks above, we do not confirm or deny to anyone whether a named person is or was a candidate.

Questions and requests

Write to milo@sair.foundation. We answer within thirty days after confirming who you are. We can describe a letter but not disclose it.

Changes

If this page changes, the date at the top changes with it.

SAIR Prize: for letter writers

Someone has asked you to write a letter for a candidate for the SAIR Prize, a $100,000 prize for early-career scientists in the US whose use of AI has advanced physics or astronomy. Every candidacy needs two letters from people who know the work first hand.

How it works

The person who asked you tells us you have agreed. We then email you a personal link. No account is needed. The link is yours alone; please do not forward it.
The email comes from "SAIR Prize" <noreply@secure-platform.com>. If it has not arrived within two working days of the person who asked you telling us you agreed, check your spam or quarantine folder, or send your letter to milo@sair.foundation instead. That works just as well.
Letters are due Friday, January 29, 2027, 11:59 PM Pacific, unless your invitation gives a later date.

What you will be asked

Your name, title, institution or employer, and email.
Your relationship to the candidate, if any of these apply (optional): you supervised their doctoral or postdoctoral work, or they supervised yours; you are at the same institution or employer now; you have published together in the past four years on a paper with fewer than ten authors, or as joint lead or corresponding authors; you have reviewed their work in a capacity known to them; something else the committee should know. None of these stops your letter. The committee is told what you tick.
The letter: a PDF or plain-text file, about two pages.
One confirmation: "The substance of this letter is mine and I stand behind it; help with wording is fine. I will not publicize this candidacy before the prize announces its recipients."

What the letter should do

Begin with what you yourself saw the candidate do on this work, and how you know. Then say what you know of the work at first hand. Where you can speak to what they personally did, please do; where you cannot, say so plainly, which is useful and not a failing. If it helps, say how they compare with others at the same stage. About two pages. A letter in a personal capacity, on plain paper, without your institutional title, is equally welcome and carries the same weight.

Work that is not public

Describe only what is public, or what your collaboration, laboratory or employer lets you describe. If your organization reviews what its staff write about internal work, ask before you write. Classified work cannot be described; call 310-871-5084 before writing anything.

Your letter is sealed

Neither the candidate nor the nominator ever sees your letter or learns what it says. The nominator, or the candidate if they entered their own work, can see whether it has arrived. It is read by the selection committee. Two named members of SAIR's staff can open it, only to check that the file opens, and they record each time they do. A letter sent by email is uploaded and sealed the same working day, and the email is deleted. More on privacy: see the privacy section above.

Saying no

A one-line no is completely fine. Tell the person who asked you, or write to milo@sair.foundation.

SAIR Prize: what happens if you win

We tell you privately first, before anything is public. Please keep it to yourself until the announcement.
Recipients are announced in April 2027. The prize is presented at a ceremony in May 2027.
The prize is $100,000. It can be shared, up to three ways, only for shared work; if it is shared, the $100,000 is divided between the recipients.
Before payment, you sign an agreement that lets SAIR reclaim the prize if fraud in the winning work is proven (Rule 33).
The money is paid to you directly. You are responsible for the taxes on it. Before payment we ask for a tax form (a W-9, or a W-8BEN if you are not a US citizen or US resident for tax purposes); SAIR withholds tax where the law requires it and issues the tax documents the law requires.
If your employer does not allow you to accept a cash award, SAIR may, with the committee's approval, give the full amount as a donation to a non-profit academic or scientific institution you name.
It is up to you to check that your employer's conflict-of-interest and compliance policies let you accept the prize. If you work for a government agency or other public institution, you are responsible for any approval your employer requires before you accept.
Recipients attend the ceremony in person. SAIR pays for your travel.

Questions: milo@sair.foundation

These points follow the prize rules (Rules 1, 2, 6, 20, 21 and 33).