Art. 1 Subject matter and objectives This Association intends to pay tribute to Prof. Vincenzo C.A. Ferraro, originally from Sorrento peninsula (Campania, Italy), an astrophysicist and pioneer in plasma physics, in order to encourage studies in the field of space plasmas. Art. 2 Foundation of the prize With this in view, the Vincenzo Ferraro Association, represented by President Maddalena Ferraro, establishes for the year 2025 a "Vincenzo Ferraro Prize" to be assigned, after evaluation by a qualified scientific panel, to a young scholar in the physics of space plasmas with particular reference to her/his doctoral thesis. Art. 3 Participation Admission to this prize is reserved to students of Italian and foreign universities who have obtained a PhD degree in Physics or equivalent in Italy or abroad after September 1, 2020 with a thesis on topics relevant to the study of space plasmas. Art. 4 Prize The amount of the prize is € 1000.00 (one thousand euro) gross. Art. 5 Applications and methods of participation Candidates must submit their application, prepared in Italian or English, including: a) first and last name; b) date and place of birth; c) residence (and tax code if Italian); d) the e-mail address to be contacted. The application must be accompanied by: e) curriculum vitae (signed);f) doctoral degree certificate; g) PhD thesis in pdf format, or links where to download it; h) scientific articles (only if refereed) in PDF format, or links from where to download them freely; i) signed statement certifying that the thesis has not won any prizes in other competitions and indicating the Supervisor of the Thesis and the University that issued the diploma. The application and the attachments referred to above must be sent in an electronic format, subject “FERRARO PRIZE 2025”, to the following e-mail address r .bruno54@gmail.com not later than May 5, 2025. The candidate must also send to the same address a simple e-mail confirming her/his application. Art. 6 Constitution of the Committee For the purposes of the assessment a judging panel is appointed, made up of experts nominated by the President of the “Vincenzo Ferraro Association”. The Chairman of this panel will be chosen by the members of the panel. Art. 7 Criteria for awarding the prize The panel will decide solely according to scientific merit based on the CV, the quality of the PhD Thesis, any scientific publications. The decision of the panel is final. Art. 8 Communication of outcome All applicants will be formally informed of the outcome of the competition by this Association by email. The prize will be presented to the winner at the conference to be held in October 2025 on the Sorrento Peninsula in a special Award Ceremony intended to publicize the results of the competition. If the winner cannot attend the Award Ceremony for any reason, the Committee reserve the right to choose another winner. Travel expenses to collect the prize are the responsibility of winner. The accommodation expenses will be paid by Association. Art. 9 Failure to collect prize If the prize is not collected within 60 days from the date of the Award Ceremony it will be returned to the financial accounts of the Association.

