1. 2013 IOTA Conference IOTA Annual Meeting October 4 - 6
David Dunlap Observatory
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

2. IOTA Awards Presentation 2013
Homer F. DaBoll Award
And
David E. Laird Award

3. Background DaBoll Award
To recognize significant contributions to occultation science and to the work of the IOTA
Name honors Homer F. DaBoll (1920 – 1990)
Organizer of grazing occultation expeditions in Midwest USA beginning in late 1960’s
Suggested the name “International Occultation Timing Association”
Founding officer of IOTA 1975 (secretary/treasurer)
First editor of Occultation Newsletter, from 1974 through 1990
Previous awardees: 2007 Dave Herald, 2008 Edwin Goffin, 2009 Steve Preston, 2010 Hristo Pavlov, 2011 Scotty Degenhardt and 2012 Kazuhisa Miyashita

4. Background Laird Award
To recognize those who, more than 15 years ago, made significant contributions to occultation science and to the work of the IOTA
Name honors David E. Laird (1931 – 1968 ?)
Physics teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio
Organizer of grazing occultation expeditions in Midwest USA beginning in early 1960’s
Published articles “Have Telescope: Will Travel” Oct 1966
Confirmed existence of a giant impact basin on the Lunar far side
Suffered from Leukemia and died in 1968 at age 37.
Previous awardees: None
Provisionally named the David E. Laird Award, it will be similar to the Homer DaBoll award, but is meant to honor those individuals whose major contribution to IOTA or to occultation science is more than 15 years old. It is named for David E. Laird, a physics teacher at the Cincinnati Country Day School who made important contributions to occultation science in the early days of lunar grazing occultation expeditions in the mid 1960's. The observations made by an expedition to northwestern Ohio, that he organized for a grazing occultation in October 1964, showed that the area beyond the lunar south pole was unusually low, the so-called southern "Cassini region" (the Watts charts incorrectly indicated that this area probably had ordinary elevations), a confirmation of the existence of a giant impact basin on the lunar far side that Gerald Kuiper postulated, believing that the Leibnitz mountains were the rim of that basin. The basin was finally mapped with the laser altimeter on the Clementine spacecraft in 1994 and named the "South Pole Aitken Basin", the largest impact basin on the Moon and also the oldest. Unfortunately, David Laird suffered from leukemia and died when he was only 37 years old, in 1968 or 1969 according to Dunham. He already has an award named after him, the computer science award given by the Cincinnati Country Day School

5. 2013 Award Selection Nominations were solicited in September
Participating award committee members were
Dave Herald, NSW, Australia (recipient 2007 award)
Edwin Goffin, Belgium (recipient 2008 award)
Steve Preston, USA (recipient 2009 award)
Hristo Pavlov, Australia (recipient 2010 award)
Scotty Degenhardt (recipient 2011 award)
Kazuhisa Miyashita (recipient 2012 award)
Colin Haig, Ontario, Canada
Robert Buchheim, California, USA
Terrence Redding, Florida, USA (chairman)
Award committee goals:
select recipient of 2013 DaBoll and Laird awards
Dave Herald, NSW New South Wales, Australia

6. Eligibility (current)
Who is eligible for the award?
Anyone who has made significant contribution to occultation science or the work of the IOTA
Excluding sitting IOTA officers & award committee
IOTA membership not required
Who can make Nominations?
No defined restrictions at this time
“Call for Nominations” made via Yahoo group effectively restricts nominators to active occultation community

7. Deliberations
Total of 15 nominations received. 6 for the DaBoll and 9 for the Laird.
All were excellent candidates
All communication conducted by
private to the committee
independent of IOTA officers
This year we again made a deliberate effort to encourage others to forward the request for nominations to other lists, mail groups and astronomy related organizations world-wide

8. Deliberations, cont.
Approach was “discussion to reach a consensus” (not “majority voting”), considering:
Documentation provided with nominations
Experience & personal knowledge of the candidate’s contributions.
Members were asked to select their top picks to be considered and discussed.
The selectee was unanimous at the end of first round for the DaBoll
The selectee was unanimous at the end of the second round for the Laird.

10. Graham L. Blow
Graham has been President of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) Occultation Section, for over 20 years.
• Has been central in all efforts to keep occultation observing active in our region, including;
- running the RASNZ website;
- compiling the Newsletter (known as OccSec Circular)
- posting predictions to observers not on-line
- Developing the Trans Tasman Symposium on Occultations, now planning for TTSO8 in Melbourne, Australia 2014

12. Hal Povenmire • Hal was one of the first graze observers, Oct 8 1963
• Has led over 500 graze expeditions
• One expedition with Paul Maley obtained 235 chords – the largest number for any single event – 1983
• Published the 1st book on Grazes on 1977, and co-authored an Occultation Observers Handbook – 2006
• Has published over 250 articles on occultations and other fields associated with solar system material (meteories, space travel, Tektites, and has authored books on other subjects
• Has not one, but two asteroids associated with his name! Povenmire for Katie and Halpov for Hal
1) He was one of the 1st graze observers ever : October 8, 1963 (Zeta Tauri). He has led over 500 graze expeditions mostly in central Florida since then, more than any other person.  
2) He organized observers for the Pallas asteroid occultation in 1983 across central Florida and along with Paul Maley obtained 235 chords from observers - the largest no. of chords ever obtained for an event.
3) October 12, 1974 he observed a 0.7 sec occultation of a m=+6.4 star by what he thought was the asteroid 129 Antigone, but the revised predictions showed the actual path of Antigone was well to the  south of him.
4) He published the 1st book on Grazes in 1977 and co-authored a book on Occultation Observers Handbook with Walt Robinson in The original graze observers handbook has been translated into a few languages
5) Hal has published over 250 articles on occultations, and other fields (meteorites, space travel, Tektites) and authored a few other books on these subjects.  
5) And Hal has not one, but two asteroids named after him !! Povenmire and Halpov.
While the rest of us mortals are struggling to maybe be considered for one, he has two !!
The official citations for the two asteroids are:
**************
Citation for (12753)
The following citation is from MPC 41032:
(12753) Povenmire = 1993 HE
   Katie Povenmire, a coronary critical care nurse, is a skilled observer
of the skies with her husband Hal Povenmire.  Meteor showers, lunar grazes
and occultations for determining the diameters of minor planets come under
her discerning eye.  Katie understands  well the joy and success of team
work.
***************
Citation for (15146)
The following citation is from MPC 51188:
(15146) Halpov = 2000 EQ130
   Harold R. Povenmire (b. 1939) has extensively searched the
Georgia strewn field in an effort to find tektites and understand
their complicated  geology.  He recently published the book
Tektites: A Cosmic Enigma.  He has also been an avid observer of
grazing lunar occultations and of occultations by minor planets.

13. The Importance of Awards
• Allows an organization to state clearly what it values
in its members
• Recognizes the significant contributions made by
Members
• Permits us to honor those we admire and whom we
wish to emulate
• Provides a permanent record of the significant work
done by those we have sought to honor
• Thus we have one more award to confer

14. Dunham Wedding Reception
July 11, 1970 Highland Park, IL
From left to right:
Tom Van Flandern (U. S. Naval Observatory)
Ron Abileah (I believe, not positive)  
Homer DaBoll (nearly bald, with drink under his chin)
Ed Halbach (president, Milwaukee Astronomical Society;
   main person behind establishing their graze cable)
David Dunham (standing on the MAS graze cable trailer)
Joan Dunham  (standing on the MAS graze cable trailer)  
At wedding reception, Joan's parent's home, Highland Park, IL
1970 July 11
David

16. Awarded for His Dedication
The father of modern day occultations
For organizing and leading IOTA
For his decades of dedication and commitment to the organization and all things associated with occultations
For the inspiration he has been to the hundreds if not thousands of observers who have followed in his
For his thoughtfulness and consideration of others