Physicist receives lifetime award

After 20 years, IU physicist Charles Horowitz has been recognized for his anonymous yet crucial work in the world of physics.

The American Physical Society has awarded Horowitz with a lifetime award as an Outstanding Referee for his work with peer-written manuscripts.

“I was glad they chose to recognize my time spent writing referee reports,” Horowitz said of his achievement. “Good referee reports are important for the scientific field.”

Horowitz, a professor in IU’s physics department and researcher at the Nuclear Theory Center at IU’s Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter, regularly edits manuscripts sent to the APS by other physicists.

It is his job to check the accuracy and overall quality of the work. He also helps decide what journals the manuscripts should be published in or whether it should be published at all.

After the manuscript is edited, it is sent back to the original author who never knows who the referee is.

“That’s got pluses and minuses,” said Herb Fertig, a fellow IU physicist who previously won the same award. “It gives the referees freedom to say very honestly what they think, but it also means that people who might not want to spend that much time on it might not do such a good job. In a way it’s also thankless. When you’re an anonymous referee, if you’re doing a good job nobody would know. This is a way to let the community know that there are some people out there trying
a little harder.”

The award is not very easy to come by. Only 143 out of 45,000 active APS referees from 22 different countries were selected to receive the lifetime honor.

The APS selects the recipients based on quality, number and timeliness of the reports with no regard to country of origin or field of research.

“The selection of Outstanding Referees was made based on over two decades of database records on over 50,000 referees, some no longer in active service, who have been called upon to review manuscripts,” Amy Halsted of the APS said, according to the press release. “These referees are to be congratulated and thanked for their outstanding service to the physics community.”

It might have taken a couple of decades, but even the most anonymous of work has gained its proper international recognition.