The following prizes are awarded each year to scientists and students from California, Nevada & Hawaii for the outstanding work performed by their recipients and the groups and institutions they work with.
2019 Post Doctoral Awards:
Charles Kittel Award for Best Theoretical Research
First place: Arnold JTM Mathijssen (Stanford University)
Luis Alvarez Award for Best Experimental Research
First place: Omar Moreno (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
2019 Graduate Awards:
Kennedy Reed Award for Best Theoretical Research by a Graduate Student
First place: Megan Barry (California State University Long Beach)
Second place: Amandeep Gill (University of Nevada, Reno) and Jaeyeong Lee (California State University, Fresno)
Margaret Burbidge Award for Best Experimental Research by a Graduate Student
First place: Nicholas Dale (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Second place: Maria Simanovskaia (University of California, Berkeley) and Samantha Lewis (University of California, Berkeley)
2019 Undergraduate Awards:
Steven Chu Award for Best Research by an Undergraduate Student
First place: Kelly Fradet (Santa Clara University)
Heather Jackson (University of California, Berkeley)
Helen Quinn Award for Education or Undergraduate Research Theory
First place: Matthew Fox (Harvey Mudd College)
Spenser Talkington (University of California, Los Angeles)
2019 Poster Awards:
SPS Poster Prize
Shradda Anand (Stanford University)
Yoana Guzman (California State University, Chico)
Prize for Best Poster Presentation by a High School Student
Emily Zhou, The Harker School San Jose
Arjun Padiyar, Irvington High School Fremont
William Huang, Lynbrook High School San Jose
2018 Undergraduate Awards:
Steven Chu Award for Undergraduate Research
First prize: Noraim Nunez (Cal State Dominguez Hills) ($200)
Second prize: Kassandra A. Weber (Humboldt State University) ($100)
2018 Graduate Awards:
Margaret Burbidge Award for Best Experimental Research
First prize: Kevin Robles (Cal Poly Pomona) ($400)
Second prize: Edgard L Bonilla Carrasquel (Stanford University) ($200)
Kennedy Reed Award for Best Theoretical Research
Mikhael Semaan (UC Davis) and Eric Flynn (Cal State Fullerton) ($300 each)
2018 Poster Awards
Graduate Students:
Gail A Vinnacombe (UC Los Angeles) and Kristopher K Barr (UC Los Angeles) ($125 each)
Undergraduate:
Michael Doris (Cal State Chico) and Monika Tadrous (Cal State Fullerton) ($125 each)
2017 Post Doctoral Awards:
Luis Alvarez Award for Best Experimental Research
First prize: Tie for Yu Zeng (UC Merced) and Natalie Hell (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
2017 Graduate Student Awards:
Margaret Burbidge Award for Best Experimental Research
First prize: Tie for Shaowei Li (UC Irvine) and Benaz Mendewala (UC Merced)
2017 Undergraduate Awards:
Steven Chu Award for Best Research
First prize: Sean Haas (Humboldt State University)
Second prize: Tie for Shoji Hishida (CSU Fresno), Ethan Rinck (CSU East Bay)
Helen Quinn Award for Education or Undergraduate Research
Tessie Lumabao (Waipahu High School, HI Dept. of Education)
2016 Graduate Student Awards:
Kennedy Reed ($250) award Best Theoretical Research by a graduate student - 1st place
Justin Smith (University of California, Irvine)
Title: Systematic method for improving first principle calculations of materials under extreme
Kennedy Reed award ($125) Best Theoretical Research by a graduate student - 2nd place
Patrick McDougall (Fresno State)
Title: Particle Production in a Gravitational Wave Background
Nader Inan (University of California, Merced)
Title: Interaction of Gravitational Waves with Superconductors
Margaret Burbidge award ($250) Best Experimental Research by a graduate student - 1st place
Julius De Rojas (University of California, Davis)
Title: Synthesis of L10 FeNi thin films via High Speed Rapid Thermal Annealing
Margaret Burbidge award ($125) Best Experimental Research by a graduate student - 2nd place
Kimberly Schultz (University of Nevada, Reno)
Title: X-ray Characteristics of Mixed Noble Gas Puff Irradiated with the Titan Laser at LLNL
2016 Undergraduate Awards:
Helen Quinn award ($250) Undergraduate Research Theory - 1st place
Alex Kemnitz (California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo)
Title: Search for Ternary Fission Events and Analysis With the NIFFTE Time Projection
Helen Quinn award ($125) Undergraduate Research Theory - 2nd place
Nicholas Sherman (University of California, Davis)
Title: Calculating Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation (NMR) Rates with Numerical Linked Cluster
Steven Chu award ($250) Undergraduate Research Experiment - 1st place
Noah Miller (California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo)
Title: The Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT) Upgrade to the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC
Steven Chu award ($125) Undergraduate Research Experiment - 2nd place
Omar Cervantes (Hartnell Community College)
Title: Using Block Co-Polymers to Create a Metal Oxide Hard Mask for Etching Silicon and Silicon Dioxide
2016 Poster Awards:
SPS Poster Award ($125 each)
Best Undergraduate Poster
Apryl Witherspoon (UNR)
Title: Experimental Apparatus for Coupling Dielectric Nanospheres to Cold Atoms
Chris Wong (Cal Polytech)
Title: The First-Ever High Speed Video Capturing the "Snap" Transition of a Bimetallic Disc
Best Graduate Poster
Rachel Baarda (UC Davis)
Title: Reliability Study of Normal Mode Analysis on the BPTI Protein
Nominees and award and office holders are expected to meet standards of professional conduct and integrity as described in the APS Ethics Guidelines. Violations of these standards may disqualify people from consideration or lead to revocation of honors or removal from office.