Maybe Now There Is A Science Awards Season?

I mused about this in late 2013 – an official awards season for science awards that echoes the one for movies.  Since that post one award has been introduced with a television-friendly awards ceremony.  The Breakthrough Prizes had their second ceremony broadcast on The Science Channel in November.  If it remains in that spot for future years (the first televised ceremony was in January 2014), we might have something.

This season would run from September through November, starting with the Ig Nobels and Golden Goose Awards, followed by the Nobels, and ending with the Breakthrough Prize announcements (hopefully with the ceremony).  Should the National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation be announced and/or awarded during this time, so much the better.

What would make such a season an effective tool in promoting scientific and technical accomplishment is a persistent publicity campaign.  The Breakthrough ceremony benefits in part due to the celebrity factor.  But the Golden Goose Awards are Washington D.C.-focused, the Ig Nobels and their serious cousins are little known outside the scientific community.  Should there be interest in expanding the brand, as it were, broader promotion of these awards could help.