1. College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada USA
2012 IOTA Conference
IOTA Annual Meeting
October 19-21
College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada USA

2. College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada USA
Homer F. DaBoll 2012 Award
IOTA Annual Meeting
October 19-21
College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada USA

3. Background
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

4. 2012 Award Selection Nominations were solicited in August
Award committee formed at the same time
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)
Colin Haig, Ontario, Canada
Robert Buchheim, California, USA
Terrence Redding, Florida, USA (chairman)
Award committee goals:
select recipient of 2012 Homer DaBoll award
Dave Herald, NSW New South Wales, Australia

5. 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

6. Deliberations Total of 10 nominations received, from 9 nominators
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

7. 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 top pick was unanimous in the first round

9. Recipient Described
Fabulous choice, and I feel a proper and deserving one!
For writing software which revolutionized occultation data processing, with dramatically improved results in timing and light level measurements.
For unique and sustained contributions in developing software to predict, and analyze and archive observations of, all types of occultations and eclipses.