ISA Fellow Grade Nomination Guidelines

The election of Fellows is not part of the Society’s Honors and Awards Program. Instead, candidates for this highest grade of ISA membership are reviewed and recommended by the Society’s Admissions Committee, and elected by the Executive Board.

Fellow grade is provided by ISA to qualified senior members who have made exceptional engineering or scientific contributions to the field of automation that advance the state of the art.

While there is no limit to the number who can be elected each year, the demanding criteria for selection maintain the integrity of Fellow grade and its position as a coveted honor. This means that nominators must carefully select and pre-qualify their candidates to insure a reasonable probability of success. It also means nominators must do an excellent job of documenting the attainments of their nominees. These guidelines are provided to help nominators effectively present their nominee(s) to the Admissions Committee. The Committee invites your nomination.

Overview of the Nomination Process

What is ISA Fellow Grade?

Fellow is an elected grade of membership. It is prestigious and is awarded by ISA to qualified Senior Members who have made exceptional engineering or scientific contributions to their profession. What are the Qualifications for Fellow?

ISA Member for at least 5 years.
Senior ISA Member.
Outstanding engineering or scientific contributions.
10+ years of active work in instrumentation.

Note: Society service is not a consideration for admission to Fellow Grade.

Who is not Eligible?

Members of the Executive Board are not eligible for Fellow grade election during their tenure; nor may Executive Board members or Admissions Committee members be evaluators of nominees for Fellow grade.

What Does the Admissions Committee Consider An Outstanding Engineering or Scientific Contribution?

The description of a nominee's "contribution," in general, should not be a "job description" of the nominee's performance with his organization. The accomplishment may take many forms, including:

Published technical papers
Research
Patents
Innovative Practices
Books
Educational Programs and Activities
Engineering Projects
Technical Leadership

For more specific examples of descriptive contributions and sample citations, refer to "Part II. The Nomination Form, General Instructions" in the ISA Fellow Grade Nomination Guide.

What are the Steps in the Nomination Process?

Select a nominee.
Verify nominee's qualifications. (Staff can verify length of membership and grade.)
Identify qualified evaluators -- people who know of the nominee's work or who are capable of assessing the nominee's accomplishments. Important: There must be a minimum of five evaluators who are members of Fellow, Life Fellow or Honorary Member grades, or alternately, a combination of nine members of Fellow, Life Fellow, Honorary Member, and/or Senior Member grade. Contact the prospective evaluators and request their assistance, explaining what is required of them. Send a completed cover letter and an evaluation form to each evaluator.
Complete the nomination form. Be thorough but concise. All documentation for the candidate is required by the Admissions Committee six seeks prior to the Spring or Summer Meeting. This date may change from year to year. Mail to:

Secretary, Admissions Committee
c/o Customer Services Department
ISA
67 Alexander Drive
PO Box 12277
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Upon receipt of the nomination form, and the designated number of qualified evaluators' assessments, staff will submit the nominee's materials for review to the Admissions Committee prior to the Leader's Spring/Summer Meeting.
Upon recommendation of the Admissions Committee, a Fellow nomination will be submitted to the Executive Board for consideration of election.
Successful candidates will be notified following the Leader's Spring/Summer Meeting and honored at the Honors & Awards Banquet held in conjunction with EXPO, the Annual International Conference & Exhibit.

What Problems Are Common in the Process?

Nominees are selected who do not meet the qualifications. Therefore, they are disqualified.
Evaluators do not send in their assessments of the candidates, the "Fellow Evaluation Form." Call Membership Services if you want an update on returned assessments, but it's important to follow up with your evaluators.
Evaluators are selected who are on the Executive Board or Admissions Committee; therefore, their assessments are disallowed.
Evaluators are selected who are non-members, and their assessments are disallowed. For assistance in identifying eligible evaluators, check the list of Fellows by Expertise elsewhere in this material, or call ISA, Membership Services (919) 549-8411.
The nominator fails to inform the evaluators adequately and does not provide them with sufficient support and assistance.

Selecting Evaluators

Each candidate must be evaluated by a minimum of five Fellow Grade Members or a combination of nine Fellows and Senior Members.

Select your candidate's evaluators with care. You must be sure they are prepared to sponsor the candidate wholeheartedly and can evaluate the candidate's engineering or scientific attainments. It is not essential for the evaluator to know the candidate personally, but the evaluator must be able to judge the candidate by his or her works. The evaluator's assessment should reinforce and augment the presentation in your nomination form. It is advisable to provide the evaluator with an advance copy of the completed nomination to help him or her decide it he or she can prepare an acceptable evaluation.*

While it is not necessary to use all Fellows as evaluators, you should give preference to Fellows when selecting evaluators and use as many Fellows as possible. Be sure all your evaluators are current ISA members. Letters of endorsement describing a candidate's attainments from non-members may be included as supplementary supporting material. Membership status can be obtained from ISA Headquarters.

While nomination requires a minimum of five Fellow evaluators or a combination of nine Fellows and Senior Members, the Admissions Committee recommends one or two extra as a safety measure. Your candidate's probability of election is not increased by excess numbers of evaluators. Your nominee's probability of election is increased by having evaluators from a wide geographical area, who can speak authoritatively on the importance and significance of the candidate's engineering and scientific attainments, and who are a balanced mix of recognized authorities in automation and the field of specialization of the candidate.

An evaluator may be a present or former co-worker, a subordinate or a superior in the candidate's place of employment. An evaluator may be in a customer's or a competitor's business organization. The relationship of the evaluator to the nominee is of no significance to the Admissions Committee provided there is a reasonably balanced mix of these relationships and evaluators are included from more than one company or institution. If you must use all or a high proportion of one group, do so, but strive to avoid it.