History of Shepard Award
The Shepard Award was instituted to recognize outstanding research and to promote the publication of good research in the official publication of the American Pomological Society. Currently the Shepard Award is presented for the best research paper published each year in Journal of the American Pomological Society.
The American Pomological Society first presented an award in 1961 for the two best papers in Volume 14 of Fruit Varieties and Horticultural Digest. This was coordinated by Dr. Andrew Leon Havis and the prize consisted of the five most recent volumes of Fruit Varieties and Horticultural Digest bound between hard covers, or a book of the winner’s choice (price limit set by the Secretary).
In 1962 this award was named the Paul Howe Shepard Award in honor of the deceased past president of the American Pomological Society. Paul Shepard had served as president in 1955-60 and on the executive board in 1961. Paul Shepard was awarded the Wilder Certificate at the 73rd Annual American Pomological Society Meeting in 1959 for his many horticultural achievements. A bibliography on Dr. Shepard was published in Fruit Varieties and Horticultural Digest in 1962, 16(2):28. He was born in 1890 and died unexpectedly at the American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Meeting in 1961. In 1983 it was voted to drop the book award completely and to only present a Certificate of Award and a cash prize.
The following criteria are used to choose the best paper:
- The paper must be a research paper. It should receive a higher rating if the research findings are replicated (for example, rootstock trials replicated at least twice either by year or location). Observational reports will not be rated as highly unless they contain very useful or unusual information.
- The paper contains new, useful and/or unusual information.
- The information is presented in a clear and accurate manner.
- The information is useful to a large part of the American Pomological Society membership.
Paul H. Shepard Award Winners (1960-Present)
We hope that the Shepard Award will continue to give incentive to researchers to publish outstanding research in the Journal of the American Pomological Society.
Shepard Award Committee Chairs:
- A. W. Havis – 1961
- W. P. Judkins – 1962-1965
- A. N. Robert – 1966
- R. P. Larsen – 1967
- E. S. Banta – 1968-1972
- E. T. Andersen – 1973-1982
- David W. Ramming – 1983-1990
- David Byrne – 1991-1999
- Kim Hummer – 2000-2008
- Michelle Warmund – 2009-2014
- Fumi Takeda – 2015-2022
- Kelsey Galimba – 2022 to present
(Updated from: Fruit Varieties Journal 46(1):24-26 1992 by David W. Ramming; Page last updated 2020)
