# Gordon Myers Amateur Achievement Award

The Gordon Myers Amateur Achievement Award, known until 2018 as the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, is one of nine annual astronomical awards managed by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. It recognizes "significant contributions to astronomy or amateur astronomy by those not employed in the field of astronomy in a professional capacity." The contributions can be done in the fields of both observational astronomy or astronomical technologies. The award has been given to amateur astronomers from various countries since 1979 and has become one of the most geographically diverse astronomical awards.
Award winners receive a commemorative plaque, which is presented at the Annual Meeting Awards Banquet. The monetary value of the award is US$500. Candidates can be nominated by any member of the astronomical community (with the exception of the nominees themselves and their families) and the nominations should be accompanied by other letters of support. All the nominations have to be delivered to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific by December 15 of the nominating year and remain valid for three years. The winners are selected by the Awards Committee appointed by the Board of Directors. The committee have the right not to award any of the nominees if they do not consider their achievements exceptional enough, which has already happened several times.

## Winners

Recipients of the award have been:
| Year | Name | Nationality | Field | Notes |
| 1979 | James McMahon | | Occultations | |
| 1980 | Frank Bateson | | Variable stars | |
| 1981 | George Alcock | | Novae/Comets | |
| 1982 | Ben Mayer | | Problicom | |
| 1983 | J. U. Gunter | | Asteroids | |
| 1984 | Russell Genet | | Photoelectric photometry | |
| 1985 | Gregg Thompson & Robert Evans | | Supernovae | |
| 1986 | Jean Meeus | | Computational astronomy | |
| 1987 | Clinton B. Ford | | Variable stars | |
| 1988 | Jack B. Newton | | Astrophotography | |
| 1989 | Paul Baize | | Double stars | |
| 1990 | Oscar Monnig | | Meteorites | |
| 1991 | Otto Kippes | | Asteroid orbits | |
| 1992 | Richard Lines & Helen Lines | | Photoelectric photometry of variable stars | |
| 1993 | David H. Levy | / | Comets | |
| 1994 | Walter H. Haas | | ALPO founder | |
| 1995 | Donald Parker | | Planetary imaging | |
| 1996 | M. Daniel Overbeek | | Variable stars | |
| 1997 | Edward A. Halbach | | Variable stars/occultations | |
| 1998 | Albert F. A. L. Jones | | Variable stars/comets | |
| 1999 | Warren Offutt | | Trans-Neptunian objects | |
| 2000 | Paul Boltwood | | Deep-sky imaging/Comet Hyakutake | |
| 2001 | Syuichi Nakano | | Computing comet orbits | |
| 2002 | | No award | No award | No award |
| 2003 | Kyle E. Smalley | | Near-Earth asteroids | |
| 2004 | Nik Szymanek | | Imaging and image processing | |
| 2005 | Tim Hunter | | Light pollution | |
| 2006 | Kamil Hornoch | | Visual and CCD observations of variable stars/comets | |
| 2007 | Peter Francis Williams | | R Coronae Borealis stars/variable star monitoring | |
| 2008 | Steve Mandel | | CCD imaging | |
| 2009 | Thomas Droege | | Developing CCD instrumentation and a worldwide sky survey program | |
| 2010 | Allan Rahill | | Adapted Canadian Meteorological Centre forecast products for the purpose of planning observing sessions with highly accurate high resolution point forecasts of cloud cover, transparency, seeing, darkness, wind, temperature and humidity over North and Central America | |
| 2011 | Kevin Apps | | Advancing the fields of extra-solar planet research and stellar astrophysics | |
| 2012 | Jeffrey L. Hopkins | | Photoelectric photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy | |
| 2013 | | No award | No award | No award |
| 2014 | Rod Stubbings | | Instrumental in helping redefine the Z Cam sub-type of dwarf novae, and discovered the recurrent nova V745 Sco in outburst in the morning sky, triggering an AAVSO Alert Notice and significant attention from the astronomical community | |
| 2015 | | No award | No award | No award |
| 2016 | | No award | No award | No award |
| 2017 | Gao Xing | | Supernovae/Comets | |
| 2018 | Thiam-Guan Tan | | Exoplanets | |