For detailed descriptions of each award, eligibility and judging criteria, and links to nomination forms, see the main User Meeting Awards page.
Shirley Award
The David A. Shirley Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the ALS went to Martin Kunz, Nobumichi Tamura, and Simon Teat, “for their development of the diffraction program in Sector 12 at the ALS.” 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.
Early Career Award
The Early Career Award went to Guiliang Xu, “for his work on synchrotron-based characterization of battery materials.” Read more…
The ALS Early Career Award was established in 2024 to recognize significant scientific contributions from early-career investigators who have performed original and independent research at the ALS.
Halbach Award
The Klaus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation at the ALS was awarded to the Greg Hura and the SIBYLS team, “for their pioneering work in developing the time-resolved, high-throughput, small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) technique at Beamline 12.3.1.” 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.
Renner Award
The Tim Renner User Services Award for Outstanding Support to the ALS User Community was awarded to Dula Parkinson, “for his commitment to providing outstanding support at the ALS and helping users succeed in their research.” 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.
Student Poster Awards
The Neville Smith Student Poster Award, first prize was awarded to Sophie Hanson (Washington State University) for “Mapping Hemolymph Flow Channels in Scorpion Tails: Morphological Insights from High-Resolution X-Ray Imaging.” Second prize went to Jana Pilatova (Molecular Foundry) for “Microscopic algae as new emerging models for studies of organic biocrystallization and vision”, and third prize went to Omolara Bakare (Virginia Tech) for “Spin-Orbital Conversion in Resonantly Excited Magnetization.”
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.
For detailed descriptions of each award, eligibility and judging criteria, and links to nomination forms, see the main User Meeting Awards page.