The IAU PhD Prize recognises outstanding scientific achievement in astrophysics around the world. Each IAU Division has, once a year, the opportunity to award its own prize to the candidate it feels has carried out the most remarkable work in the previous year (i.e. a PhD Thesis which has been defended between the 16 December in the previous year, and 15 December this year). Theses which are in preparation or submitted, but not yet defended by the deadline of a given year will have to be submitted the following year.
Candidates are required to submit: an abstract of their thesis that is suitable for public consumption; a 1500-word thesis summary; three letters of recommendation (including one from the PhD advisor); and a CV.
The deadline for all applications is 15 December every year, to include all applications since the previous year’s deadline. The application form is available here: https://www.iau.org/submissions/phd-prize/
Please see https://www.iau.org/science/grants_prizes/phd_prize/ for further information.