The 2020 ALS User Meeting Awards were presented on Wednesday, August 26, 2020.
The David A. Shirley Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the ALS went to Miquel Salmeron, “For taking surface studies from ultrahigh vacuum to near-ambient pressure, revealing the chemical, electronic, and mechanical properties of surfaces and interfaces on the nanometer (and often atomic) scale.” Read more…
David Shirley was a Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and Director of LBNL from 1980 to 1989, and was instrumental in having the Advanced Light Source built. He is now retired from the lab.
The Klaus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation at the ALS was awarded to Eric Gullikson, “for contributions to x-ray metrology that are central to building beamlines at the ALS and around the world.” Read more…
Klaus Halbach was a senior staff scientist at LBNL who pioneered the development of undulators using permanent magnets, and other innovations in accelerator physics. Even though he retired from LBNL in 1991, he remained active in lab projects and student training until his death in 2000.
The Tim Renner User Services Award for Outstanding Support to the ALS User Community was awarded to Tom Scarvie, “for coordinating all accelerator and beamline floor operator activities to provide reliable light to users safely.” Read more…
Tim Renner was a beamline scientist at the ALS who died at an early age, and who during his career touched everyone that knew him with his caring attitude to others and his larger-than-life personality. This award recognizes the services of others across the ALS organization who, like Tim, have made outstanding contributions to the ALS User Community.
The Neville Smith Student Poster Award, First Prize, went to David Raftrey (Materials Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab/University of California, Santa Cruz) for “Hopfions: Magnetism in Three Dimensions.”
Second Prize: Guanhua (Tibbers) Hao (ALS/University of Nebraska-Lincoln) for “The Energy Landscape of a Fe(II) Spin Crossover System Under the Influence of Magnetic Field.”
Third Prize: Sintu Rongpipi (Pennsylvania State University) for “GIWAXS Reveals Preferred Orientation of Cellulose in Primary Cell Walls.”
Neville Smith was the Scientific Director for the ALS from 1994 until his death in 2006. He was known not only for his scientific expertise, particularly in photoemission spectroscopy, but also for his wicked wit. As a great supporter of young scientists, his contribution is acknowledged by the naming of the Student Poster Award in his honor, beginning in 2014.