General Section Award Nominations

The General Section is accepting nominations for the Paul W. Kehres and John R. Hunt awards to be presented at the 2025 AAFS Annual Scientific Conference. All nominations must be emailed to the General Section Awards Committee Chair, Katherine M. Brown, at kmbrown@tarleton.edu by August 15, 2025. The criteria are listed in the Policy and Procedure Manual (PPM) on the AAFS website at https://www.aafs.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/AAFS_PPM_February23.pdf.

The criteria for each award is listed below:

John R. Hunt Award:

The John R. Hunt Award is intended to recognize sustained superior contributions to the General Section, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the forensic science community.

• Must be a Fellow of the General Section for the past consecutive three (3) years when this award is bestowed; and
• Must have attended a minimum of 50% of the section business meetings in the past six (6) years; and
• Must have presented a scientific paper, poster session, participated as a presenter in a joint or plenary session, breakfast or luncheon seminar, or workshop within the last five (5) years; and
• Must have published at least once in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, which can be any of the following: article, technical note, or case history report; and
• Should have served in an elected position within the section, in an official AAFS capacity for at least one (1) year, as a committee chair for the General Section for at least one (1) year, or as a member of a committee(s) for at least three (3) years; or
• In the absence of one of the above section or AAFS activities (criteria (2), (3), (4), or (5)), potential candidates shall have made a significant contribution to the forensic science community that may not be reflected by specific section or AAFS effort.

Paul W. Kehres Meritorious Service Award:

The Robert "Bob" Thibault Award is to be given annually to recognize an individual in the General Section who has worked behind the scenes for the good of the General Section. The recipient of this award should exemplify the qualities of its namesake — a selfless, committed, service-oriented leader who has continually shown great devotion to the General Section and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

This service may include but is not be limited to:

• Performance of section responsibilities under extremely adverse conditions, or
• Service to the section far above and beyond that which would normally be expected, and/or communicating and implementing particularly inspirational ideas that particularly benefit the section.