AST Honors
AST honors excellence in systems thinking, complexity, and systems science through one Medal, four Prizes, and one Award—recognizing field-shaping achievement, exceptional contribution, and promising new work.
Each year, AST evaluates the eligible pool in the AST Registry against the published criteria for each honor using machine scoring. Of those who meet the criteria and have not already received the honor for the same contribution, the most noteworthy is identified. In years where no candidate meets the threshold, the honor is not awarded. The evidence sets the standard—not a calendar or a committee.
AST Science Medal
AST Science Medal in Systems Thinking
The Academy’s highest honor. Field-shaping systems science with evidentiary rigor
Description: Honors transformative work that advances the science of systems thinking by establishing or substantially reshaping field-shaping, evidence-backed systemic architecture across nature, mind, or their integration, with explicit falsifiability criteria and credible empirical or computational validation of existence and/or effect.
Awarded for: Foundational theories or formal frameworks with testable claims; empirical validation programs; computational models with verifiable predictions; reproducible evidence demonstrating systemic existence or effect.
AST Mind Science Prize
AST Mind Science Prize in Systems Thinking
Significant advancement of thinking within complex systems
Description: Recognizes major evidence-backed contributions clarifying how reasoning, decision, regulation, and adaptive cognition operate within structured systems using explicit falsifiability criteria and credible empirical or computational validation of existence and/or effect.
Awarded for: Cognitive architectures; bounded rationality research; structured reasoning models; empirically grounded cognition–system integration.
AST Impact Prize
AST Impact Prize in Systems Thinking
Evidence of benefits from practice and measurable effect
Description: Honors applied systems evidence-backed work that demonstrates measurable improvements in policy, governance, organizations, education, or other real-world systems, with attributable outcomes.
Awarded for: Evidence-based systemic interventions; documented benefits and outcomes; performance gains; scalable designs with validated impact.
AST Public Understanding Prize
AST Public Understanding Prize in Systems Thinking
Public uptake while preserving scientific rigor
Description: Recognizes exceptional work that brings systems thinking to broad public audiences with demonstrable uptake while maintaining the conceptual precision and scientific integrity of the field.
Awarded for: Books, media, education, or public scholarship that achieves substantial public reach and engagement while accurately representing systems thinking without distortion or dilution and measurably improves or demonstrates evidence of public understanding.
AST Promising Research Award
AST Promising Research Award in Systems Thinking
Emerging excellence in science and practice
Description: Spotlights emerging scholars and practitioners—regardless of age—whose recent contributions to systems thinking demonstrate strong structural reasoning, methodological clarity, and high future potential in systems science or practice.
Awarded for: Promising and significant contributions within ~10 years of a candidate’s first sustained systems-thinking contribution (e.g., first systems-focused publication, framework, program, or body of work), demonstrating scientific rigor, structural clarity, and evidence of benefit or advancement.