Prizes & Recognition FAQ

You must submit an Expense Report Form and all corresponding receipts. Expenses can be submitted with SIAM's Online Reimbursement Portal. If you have not submitted for reimbursement before, you will need to create a new account in the portal.

The air travel reimbursement is based on your travel from your home base at your university and the site of the conference. You may report one way of your travel (either arriving at the conference or departing), but it must be between your home base and the conference. If you are reporting both arriving and departing airfare, we will need to see a round-trip fare. If you did not fly round-trip, please obtain a quotation from your vendor for a round-trip ticket on the same days of the week that you arrived and departed the conference site.

Your round-trip ticket can include connecting flights at intermediate airports. But a stop in another city for a visit, for business or pleasure, is not a round-trip.

Your receipt can be from an airline or vendor like Expedia or Orbitz, but we need a document that is a receipt (proof of purchase) and that indicates which airline(s) your flew.

You should report items that total in excess of your award maximum. You don’t need to report anything further after you have exceeded your award. If you wish to report further items, that is fine.

You should report the full expenses indicated on the receipts you choose to claim. Do not truncate the cost on a receipt so as to come in exactly to your maximum on the report form.

Your round-trip ticket can include connecting flights at intermediate airports. But a stop in another city for a visit, for business or pleasure, is not a round-trip.

Your receipt can be from an airline or a vendor like Expedia or Orbitz, but we need a document that is a receipt (proof of purchase) and that indicates which airline(s) you flew.

Staying at the hotel before and after the conference is fine. However, SIAM will reimburse you only the night before the conference begins and the night of the last day of the conference, in addition to the nights during the conference.

You may report on the form the portion of the total hotel bill that you are claiming reimbursement for. There is space on the report form for a brief note explaining how you split the bill. We need to know how you have arrived at the costs you report.

Sometimes the hotel will issue a bill to each payer for their portion of the total. You may submit that but also please inform us how you split the cost.

Air travel, ground transportation, hotel accommodation, and meals are reimbursable items. You can claim them against the maximum of your travel award.

The per diem is intended to cover your food and beverages at meals and also any food for a snack and any drinks, coffee, teas, bottle of water, etc.

Please confirm that you will attend the meeting via email and that you will accept the award. You should have received an email notification of the award you received; please reply to that email. There is nothing further to do regarding the award. However, you should go ahead and make your travel and hotel arrangements.

You can hold off confirming your travel award until after you hear whether you will present your paper. There is not a deadline for confirming, but we would like to hear as soon as possible.

Your Travel Award comes in the form of a capped reimbursement. You can submit for reimbursement via SIAM's Online Reimbursement Portal. Please download the Expense Report Form and submit it along with any corresponding receipts via the portal. Please submit these items within 30 days after the conference. Reimbursement typically takes six weeks from the date of receiving these documents.

We cannot process your expense report until we receive the complete report and your receipts after the conference. Please wait until you have collected your receipts and completed your report form before you submit all the documents. Documents should be submitted together via the Reimbursement Portal.

Air travel, ground transportation, hotel accommodation, and meals are reimbursable items. You can claim them against the maximum of your travel award. Please submit receipts for any item for which you wish to be reimbursed.

No, you must create a new account with new login credentials in the SIAM Prize Portal.

If the prize for which you would like to submit a nomination is not appearing it means that the nomination window for that prize is closed. If you think this is in error, please contact SIAM staff.

Please do not pre-register for the conference. As part of your award, your registration is complimentary and we will register you.

The exception to this is conferences that are not run by SIAM. Typically these are conferences run by other societies or university departments in countries outside the USA. In these cases, you will have to pay to register and reserve your hotel accommodation. Your registration and hotel costs are reimbursable. For SIAM Travel Award winners, there will be a standard increase in the value of your award and you may report your registration within that maximum.

Your registration covers the conference sessions, coffee breaks, and receptions, etc. It does not cover events that have separate fees, such as tutorials or conference dinners. Please review “Registration Information” at the conference website to see the events, if any, that have separate fees.

You may be asked to indicate what events and receptions you plan to attend. Signing up for these does not require payment (except where specified). We are using your information in the headcount of attendees so we can determine room sizes and food supplies.

As a SIAM Prize or Travel Award winner, you will not have to pre-register. You may ignore notices to pay for conference registration.

Confirmed speakers who need a Letter of Invitation to assist in the visa application process should fill out the Letter of Invitation Request Form. SIAM Travel Award winners should use this form and indicate that they are a student or early career travel award recipient. Please allow three to four weeks for processing and delivery of the letter.

International attendees at conferences in the USA may already be aware that there have been changes to the visa program for scientific visitors, which affect even people from visa waiver countries. The International Visitors Office website, maintained by The National Academies, provides guidance on obtaining the necessary documents.

As of January 12, 2009, a valid ESTA approval is required for all travelers from visa waiver countries. Please visit this website for additional information and procedures regarding the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) as maintained by the US Department of State.

Travel outside of the U.S. under the Travel Awards program must comply with the Fly America Act. See for example, this Fly America Act resource. In some cases, the United States has entered into bilateral or multilateral “Open Skies” agreements with other nations. In these cases, The Fly America Act does not prohibit travel funded by civilian government agencies on carriers associated with these nations. For example, there are such agreements with the European Union (including non‑EU members Norway and Iceland), Australia, Switzerland, Israel, and Japan.