• Purpose. The Herman P Schwan Award is established to: (1) encourage and support young scientists to continue his/her world-class research on electrical bioimpedance or (2) honour scientists who have distinguished themselves within the field of electrical bioimpedance by their contribution in:  the advancement of electrical bioimpedance basic knowledge and/or technology by independent original research and/or development, and/or promoting electrical bioimpedance in a particular meritorious way; by education, training and/or organising activities. 
• The award. A plaque, a hardback numbered copy of Herman P Schwan's selected papers, a bibliophile numbered copy of William Gilbert: "De magnete", $1000, invitation as keynote speaker to the coming International Conference on Electrical Bio-Impedance (ICEBI), etc. 
• Candidate nomination. By the International Committee for the Promotion of Research in Bio-Impedance (ICPRBI), the International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) of the coming ICEBI or any induvidual by the written letter to the chairman of the ICPRBI. The chairman of the ICPRBI shall initiate the nomination process so that it is completed not later than 4 months before the coming ICEBI. A nomination submission may include supporting materials. 
• Award Committee (after 09/2007). Shall select the 1. and 2. candidate for the award. The award committee shall consist of 3 members: the President of ISEBI, a former recipient of the Award and the Chairman of the forthcoming ICEBI. The President of ISEBI is responsible for notifying the 1. candidate. If the selected 1. candidate decides not to accept the award, the award reverts to the 2. candidate. The Chairman of the forthcoming ICEBI shall make the necessary arrangements with the candidate for presentation of the award, and shall present the award to the Awardee at the coming ICEBI. If no qualified candidates are found, the award shall pass over to the next ICEBI. 
• Resources. The award is financed by ICEBI surpluses, and/or from other available sources. If the foreseeable available resources are considered insufficient, the candidate nomination process may pass over to the next ICEBI. 

The 1st. H.P. Schwan Award was presented to Prof. Ronald Pethig during the XI ICEBI, in 2001, in Oslo for "his remarkable achievements over a broad spectrum of award-relevant activities, both in theory, applications and industrial innovations. His outstanding studies of the dielectric properties of single living cells in suspension, and the possible mechanical manipulation of such cells in an electric field. His important technological exploitation of this concept using miniaturised analytical measuring devices. His now classical book from 1979 "Dielectric and Electronic Properties of Biological Materials" with a fresh and original approach to the still unsolved problems of electronic and semiconductor properties of biological materials."

The 2nd. H.P. Schwan Award was presented to Prof. Brian H Brown, during the XII ICEBI, in 2004, in Gdansk,  for "his achievements over a broad spectrum of bioimpedance award-relevant activities, from theoretical developments and instrumentation design to clinical applications and industrial innovations. By promoting bioimpedance tomography he has worked with many types of human living tissue, in particular lung and cervical tissue. He has made Sheffield a centre of bioimpedance research world wide known. He played an important role in the European Electrical Impedance Tomography project, without loosing sight of the whole field of bioimpedance.   Emphasis has also been put on his pioneer work in impedance imaging, important technological exploitation of bioimpedance tomography and the development of the commercialised Sheffield EIT Systems"

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The 3rd. H.P. Schwan Award was presented to Prof. Eberhard Gersing, during the XIII ICEBI in 2007, in Graz, for "his pioneering work in clarifying the mechanisms of characteristic changes in the impedance spectra of living tissues during and after ischemia. In many thoroughly designed experiments he demonstrated the related phenomena, especially in the alpha- and beta-dispersion range, and the effects of different medical treatments involving oxygen deficiency on the spectra. He also developed and validated models for explaining the underlying physiological mechanisms. He promoted Bioimpedance applications by designing and publishing precision hardware relevant for many scientific and industrial activities related to impedance spectroscopy, impedance cardiography and impedance tomography. With his contributions he stimulated many international groups in starting their own developments."

Prof. Gersing died on May 22 2009. OBITUARY 

The 5th H. P. Schwan Award was given to Professor David Holder for his pioneering work in imaging brain activity with electrical impedance tomography. From the engineering point of view, this is extremely difficult, as not only the sources are very weak but the corresponding signals are also damped and corrupted by various mechanisms on their way to the surface. Many difficult problems were solved and finally he was successful in demonstrating the feasibility of imaging brain activation patterns in the cortex of an anesthetized rat by EIT. Throughout many years he has promoted EIT, an important sector of bioimpedance research, not only by his important scientific contributions but also by organizing and co-organizing a series of meetings and workshops. Within the impedance community he is one of the leading persons who try to push forward clinical applications of EIT.