Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers
Seven Department of Energy scientists were among the recipients of this year’s prestigious Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers.
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August 12, 2002—President George W. Bush and his science advisor Jack Marburger honored 60 of the Nation’s brightest researchers with the 2001 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE, presented to the recipients in a ceremony at the White House on July 12, 2002, is the highest governmental honor received by outstanding scientists and engineers at the outset of their independent careers.
"Your work advances important national goals. And accomplishing these goals requires the cooperation amongst scientists and engineers in our universities, our government agencies, and of course, the private sector," said the President in his address to the PECASE recipients. "This award is a statement of our confidence, the Nation's confidence, and the tremendous good that can come when the American government supports the genius of the American people."
The PECASE, established as a Presidential award in 1996, honors the most promising researchers in the Nation within their fields. The program is administered by the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Eight Federal departments and agencies join together annually to nominate scientists and engineers whose work is of greatest benefit to the nominating agency's mission. The participating agencies award their nominees up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions.
The presentation of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Scientist and Engineer Awards ceremony was held on July 11, 2002, a day before the PECASE ceremony. Two divisions of DOE, the Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), nominate scientists or engineers based on specific criteria.
The Office of Science's Early Career Scientist Awards are for the outstanding work of researchers from the Office of Science National Laboratories who have less than 5 years research experience since completing postdoctoral research training or its equivalent, and who have contributed significantly to the basic research in support of DOE's science mission.
The NNSA's Early Career Scientist and Engineer Awards are given to researchers from universities who are nominated by their associated NNSA Defense Program National Laboratories for their important contributions to NNSA's national security mission.
At the DOE ceremony hosted by the Office of Science's Deputy Director James Decker at DOE Headquarters, Decker, Ambassador Linton Brooks (NNSA Acting Administrator), and the Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham spoke to the Early Career Scientist (and Engineer) Award winners before awarding them a plaque and guaranteed continued funding of their work for five years. Citations at the ceremony were given by Everet Beckner, Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, and Peter Faletra, Assistant Director for Workforce Development, Office of Science.
"Each of you has made innovative and substantive contributions to our scientific programs and have been selected from a strong field of candidates," said Decker.
A total of seven DOE Early Career Scientist and Engineer Award winners then also received the PECASE the next day at the White House ceremony. Four were recipients from the Office of Science and three were from the NNSA.
DOE Office of Science Early Career Scientist Awards
Ian M. Anderson is a group leader in the Metals and Ceramics Division of the Office of Science's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Anderson's cutting-edge research is in the development of electron beam microcharacterization techniques and their application to materials research and development. He is considered a leader in the fields of quantitative spectrum imaging using linear multivariate statistical analysis and atom location by channeling-enhancing microanalysis—or ALCHEMI.
Anderson's research provides improved understanding in areas such as strengthening mechanisms in intermetallic alloys, oxidation phenomena, bonding in ceramics, and interface structures in semiconductors. His contribution to the underlying science of solute effects in intermetallic alloys represents a significant advance in the fundamental understanding required to develop new high-temperature, energy-efficient materials.
Anderson has also been awarded the Burton Medal by the Microscopy Society of American in 1998 for his ALCHEMI technique and for development of spectrum imaging methods.
Vincent T. Cianciolo is the fourth researcher from the Physics Division of the Office of Science's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to earn the PECASE since the award's inception. Cianciolo developed a scientific program and detector instrumentation for the PHENIX experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. One major goal of the PHENIX research is to confirm and understand the existence of quark-gluon plasma—a state of matter thought to have existed in the first seconds of the early universe. Cianciolo was instrumental in the design of the Muon Identifier, a key detector that will enable the identification of certain subnuclear particles that are a muon signature for quark-gluon production.
Recognized as one of the new leaders of the international nuclear physics community, Cianciolo has been instrumental in defining the future direction for ORNL's Physics Division.
Mark C. Herrmann, from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, received the Office of Science nomination for his work in fusion sciences. Hermann has contributed to fundamental studies of implosion and ignition physics in inertial fusion and for identifying approaches to cooling fusion by-products using radio-frequency waves in magnetic fusion. His research led to the development of a phenomenological law that predicts the minimum energy required to ignite an inertial fusion capsule as a function of parameters that are directly controlled by the capsule designer. These techniques have now been adopted as part of the design process for the fusion capsules to be used for the National Ignition Facility currently under development at LLNL. In addition, Herrmann's pioneering fusion research has the potential to enhance the efficiency of fusion reactors.
In 2000, Herrmann also received the American Physical Society Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Plasma Physics.
Jizhong Zhou is a senior staff scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division of the Office of Science's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Zhou's was nominated for his pioneering research and leadership in functional genomics and microbial ecology through the application of genomic technologies to address complex environmental problems. His research has led to development of technologies crucial to microscale environmental research. Zhou's technologies address problems related to pathogen detection, microbial ecology of infectious diseases, plant growth, animal health, biodiversity, pharmaceutical discovery, bioprocessing of industrial products, waste-water treatment, and bioremediation of contaminants.
Zhou was also recently awarded grants in the Microbial Cell Program, the newest portion of DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research's Genomes to Life Initiative.
DOE NNSA Early Career Scientist and Engineer Awards
Kenneth Gall, University of Colorado, was nominated by the NNSA's Sandia National Laboratories for his unique contributions to developing multiscale experiments and enhanced material models that span microstructural and continuum phenomena. Gall's research revolves around the design, deformation, and failure of materials that are increasingly employed in defense applications, smart structures, and bioengineering. These materials include shape memory alloys, lightweight cast materials and high-strength steels, carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites, and thin films. Through his research, Gall provides a better understanding of the potential vulnerabilities of weapon system components.
As an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado, Gall has also received the Sullivan-Carlson Innovation in Teaching Award during his third semester of teaching. He engages and challenges his students with problems related to Defense Program projects, and he advocates on-the-job training at the DOE laboratories to enhance his students' educational experiences.
Paul Ricker, University of Chicago, was nominated by NNSA's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He leads the code architecture group at the University of Chicago's FLASH Center. Ricker and his team focus on numerical simulation of complex astrophysical phenomena. In development of FLASH code, Ricker and his team solved a large number of computational physics problems that are similar to those faced in the Defense Program's Accelerated Strategic Computer Initiative stewardship activities. Ricker's work helps demonstrate how advances in the computer science community can be incorporated into physics applications to solve highly complex problems.
In 2000, Ricker and the FLASH team also received the Gordon Bell Prize, the most significant award in supercomputing.
John Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology, was nominated by NNSA's Sandia National Laboratories for his contributions to the development of new tools, materials, and applications that advance the science of component microfabrication from materials other than silicon. Zhang has provided both synthesized magnetic nanoparticulate materials and valuable guidance to the Defense Programs on surface preparation, sintering, and physical characterization of these materials. His research will positively and significantly impact the ability to rapidly develop improved components for both current and new weapon systems.
He has been recognized as a co-inventor on a U.S. patent, which covers the use of nanoparticles for micromolding ceramic microparts from many different materials with many different properties, and the incorporation of these microparts into functional devices. In 1999, Zhang received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the NSF's most prestigious honor for junior faculty members. He was also named winner of the 2000 Exxon Mobil Award in Solid State Chemistry.
The DOE's Early Career Scientist Awards were also initiated in 1996 to encourage promising scientists and engineers to pursue research in DOE's energy and national security missions. The awards are intended to foster innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, and enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals.
The other participating Federal departments and agencies that nominate their own scientists and engineers for the PECASE besides DOE's Office of Science and NNSA are the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Agriculture (DOA), and the Department of Commerce (DOC).
The official Whitehouse PECASE announcement provides a complete list of recipients from all agencies on the White House website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020626-3.html
—by Mary Ann Showalter
Contacts: Cindy Musick, DOE's Office of Science, (202) 586-0987, cindy.musick@science.doe.gov
Related Web Links
Office of Science and
Technology Policy: 2002
Brochure for the Presidential Early Career Awards for
Scientists and Engineers
U.S. Department
of Energy Office of Science
National Nuclear
Security Administration
"Understanding
the properties of ordered aluminide intermetallics with
ALCHEMI," IM Anderson, J Bentley, AJ Duncan, and
LM Pike, Shared Research Equipment Research Highlights.
PHENIX,
A Physics Experiment at RHIC
"Target
Design Activities for Inertial Fusion Energy at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory," Max Tabak, Debra
Callahan-Miller, Mark Herrmann, Stephan Hatchett, John
D. Lindl, L. John Perkins, in the Proceedings of
the Fusion Energy Conference 2000.
"Functional
Genomics," Oak Ridge National Laboratory Environmental
Sciences Division's Genomics Laboratory.
Accelerated Strategic
Computing Initiative (ASCI) FLASH Center
Support: The PECASE program is administered by the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Author: Mary Ann Showalter is a science writer and electronic communications specialist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She is also the managing editor of PNNL's environment, safety, health, and quality newsletter, ESH&Q Exchange, and contributor to the award-winning DOE Tanks Focus Area website. For more science news, see PNNL's News & Publications.