This award has been presented since 2005. Dr. Campbell was the first recipient.

Nominations are to be  received no later than 15 February by the Awards Coordinator at e-mail: awards-coord@cmos.ca or the Society postal address to be considered by the selection Committee. 

1. Nomination letters should include the current title, full address and phone number of the nominee.
2. An up-to-date CV and a summary of the candidate's work must be included.
3. The nomination should be accompanied by (at least one and at most four) additional letters of support indicating the extent of influence of the candidate's work.
4. Nominees in previous years who have not received awards may be re-nominated. All criteria provided above apply to re-nominations.
5. The Committee has a policy of automatically considering nominations (kept on file) submitted the preceding year , without the need for re-nomination documents. Nevertheless, nominators are strongly encouraged to re-affirm and/or update these nominations.
6. Electronic format (e.g., pdf) is preferred; however, hard-copy material will be accepted.
7. Receipt of submissions will not be acknowledged unless requested. Acknowledgement when requested will be by e-mail

The following are excerpts from his biography.

Neil J. Campbell was born in Los Angeles Calif. of Canadian parents and attended schools in Toronto and St. Mary's, Ontario, graduatied from McMaster University his BSc and his MSc and from the University of British Columbia with a Ph.D. in physics. There he conducted  graduate studies in physical oceanography.

He was employed by the Fisheries Research Board of Canada in Nanaimo, BC, St. Andrews, NB and Halifax, NS where he headed the Board's Arctic and Atlantic Oceanographic programs.

He organized the entry of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources into the field of marine sciences. This would later become the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) where he continued to work..

He was named and became head of the Canadian delegation to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO in 1968 and subsequently served the Commission in various capacities including four years as First Vice-Chairman. During his term as Vice-Chairman he represented the IOC and UNESCO at the Third Law of the Sea Conference.

He was assigned the responsibility of organizing the federal government's program for the study of pollution of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario for the International Joint Commission which led establishment of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters. I

In 1987 he was nominated as a Life Member of CMOS and was awarded the J. P. Tully Medal in Oceanography in 1992.  After the retirement of Uri Schwarz In 1994 he took over the position of Executive Director of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. from which he retired in 2004.