The UKeiG Strix award is an annual award for outstanding contributions to the field of information retrieval and is presented in memory of Dr Tony Kent, a past Fellow of the Institute of Information Scientists (IIS), who died in 1997. Tony Kent made a major contribution to the development of information science and information services both in the UK and internationally, particularly in the field of chemistry. The name 'Strix' was chosen to reflect Tony's interest in ornithology, and as the name of the last and most successful information retrieval packages that he created.
The Award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the field of information retrieval that meets one of the following criteria:
a major and/or sustained contribution to the theoretical or experimental understanding of the information retrieval process;
development of, or significant improvement in, mechanisms, a product or service for the retrieval of information, either generally or in a specialised field;
development of, or significant improvement in, ease of access to an information service;
a sustained contribution over a period of years to the field of information retrieval; for example, by running an information service or by contributing at national or international level to organisations active in the field.
Recipients so far have been: Source: Cilip
1998: Prof Stephen Robertson
1999: Dr Donna Harman
2000: Dr Martin Porter
2001: Prof Peter Willett
2002: Malcolm Jones
2003: Dr Herbert Van de Sompel
2004: Prof C. J. 'Keith' van Rijsbergen
2005: Jack Mills
2006: Stella Dextre Clarke
2007: Mats Lindquist
2008: Prof Kalervo Jarvelin
2009: Carol Ann Peters
2010: Michael Lynch
2011: Prof Alan Smeaton
2012: Doug Cutting and David Hawking
2013: Prof W. Bruce Croft
2014: Dr Susan Dumais
2015: Prof Peter Ingwersen
2016: Prof Maristella Agosti
UKeiG is a special interest group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.
