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Department of Energy Awards

DOE Early Career Research Program and other awards

Supporting outstanding scientists early in their career and recognizing contributions in areas that support America's security and prosperity

Awards recognize contributions in areas that support America's security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.

These awards represent one of the highest honors an employee or contractor can receive, and it’s a longstanding tradition to recognize the recipients at an annual ceremony at the DOE Headquarters.

DOE Early Career Research Program Award

The DOE Early Career Research Program Award, established in 2010, supports the individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates research careers in the disciplines supported by the DOE Office of Science: Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES), High Energy Physics (HEP), and Nuclear Physics (NP).

Learn more at the DOE-Early Career Research Program website.

Kelly Keegan

Proposal: An Innovative (nn, xxxx) Measurement Capability for Fusion Reactors, Fast Reactors, Radiochemical Diagnostics, and Astrophysics

Dan O'Malley

Proposal: Quantum Computing and Machine Learning for Enhanced Understanding of Fracture Flow

 

Rich Fiorella

for probing water cycle processes and extremes

Yu Zhang

for boosting multiscale modeling capabilities for molecular quantum electrodynamics on DOE exascale computers.

Andrey Lokhov

for improving mathematics underpinning machine learning for many-body quantum physics, etc.

Kun Liu

for understanding the origin of the hadron mass.

Zhaowen Tang

Understanding the 10-second neutron lifetime discrepancy

Miles Frank Beaux II

Proposal: Resolving the f-electron Challenge with Scanning Probe Microscopy/Spectroscopy

 

J. Matthew (Matt) Durham

Proposal: Exotic Probes of Dense Nuclear Matter

Matthew James Hoffman

Proposal: Creating a Sea-Level-Enabled E3SM: A Critical Capability for Predicting Coastal Impacts [creates a regional sea level modeling capability within the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)]. See page 28.

Sowjanya Gollapinni

Proposal: Development of a Laser Calibration System for the DUNE Far Detector (received when at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Gollapinni brought the award with her to LANL when she joined in 2019). See page 22.

Cesar Luis Da Silva

Proposal: Gluon Saturation Search in the Deep Small Bjorken-x Region using the Large Hadron Collider Beauty Experiment (LHCb). See page 17.

 

Stefano Gandolfi

Proposal: Weak Interactions in Nuclei and Nuclear Matter. See page 27.

 

Alex Zylstra

Proposal: Studying Nuclear Astrophysics with Inertial Fusion Implosions. See page 84.

Jonathan Ward Engle

Proposal: Nuclear Data for Spallation Neutron Radioisotope Production. See page 13.

Christopher Lee

Proposal: Precision Probes of the Strong Interaction. See page 25.

Joel C. Rowland

Proposal: Incorporating the Hydrological Controls on Carbon Cycling in Floodplain Ecosystems into Earth System Models (ESMs). See page 31.

Marian Jandel

Proposal: New Data on Neutron Reactions Relevant to Basic and Applied Science. See page 30.

 

Nathan Urban

Proposal: Beyond the Black Box: Combining System and Model Dynamics to Learn About Climate Uncertainties. See page 60.

Amy Clarke

Proposal: In-situ Monitoring of Dynamic Phenomena during Solidification (could provide the ability to visualize experimentally and model theoretically the melting and solidification processes of metal alloy materials, even at elevated temperatures). See page 13.

 

Ivan Vitev

Proposal: Jet Probes of a New State of Matter (will advance the theory of jets in nuclear collisions and employ these jets as powerful probes of the strongly interacting plasma; the expected outcome will be a significant reduction of the current large uncertainty in the determination of plasma properties such as density, opacity, and transport coefficients). See page 55.

Andrew Gaunt

Proposal: Molecular Transuranic Discovery Science: Underpinning National Energy Security and Waste Remediation Needs. See page 18.

 

Christopher Mauger

Proposal: Design of the Near Detectors and Optimization of Water and Ice Targets for Fine-grained Tracking Detectors for the Fermilab Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE). See page 36.

 

Nathan McDowell

Proposal: An Integrated Theory on the Mechanisms of Vegetation Survival and Mortality During Drought. See page 37.

 

Evgenya Simakov (Smirnova)

Proposal: Advancing Our Understanding of Photonic Band Gap Structures for Accelerators. See page 57.

 

Tsuyoshi Tajima

Proposal: Technology Development Toward Very High-Gradient and High Quality-Factor Superconducting RF Cavities. See page 60.

Other DOE Awards

2024

U.S. Department of Energy Forensics Operations (DFO) Team

2017

Cancer Moonshot Team

Technology Convergence Working Group

Ebola Task Force

1996

Carl Ostenak "For contributions to the development of the ‘Necessary and Sufficient’ Process,” a foundation of DOE’s new approach to establish Integrated Safety and Management Systems across the DOE.

2020

Bradley D. Perkins was honored with a DOE Service Award for his system development and maintenance expertise, ingenuity, collaborative nature, and dedication to  Atmospheric Radiation Measurement's (ARM) mission as part of the operations support tools team.

The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) deployment team received a 2020 Department of Energy (DOE) Service Award for their exemplary work and service to the ARM national user facility community.

2020

Jesse A. Sievers made significant contributions to EMI SIG over the years and was instrumental in establishing a new subcommittee for emergency management planners, which he also served as the chairman for. He also led the effort for COVID-19 lessons learned across the DOE/NNSA complex, which led to a multi-site panel discussion at this year’s EMI SIG meeting.

2024

U.S. Department of Energy Forensics Operations (DFO) Team

2021

PEI1 Team - the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) PF-4 Equipment Installation-Phase I (PEI1) subproject

2020

Exascale Class Computing Cooling Equipment (ECCCE) project

2018

LANL was the first Hazard Category 2 nuclear facility completed under budget and ahead of schedule in a significant number of years.

2024

Nimble Subcritical Experiment Team

Exascale Computing Project Leadership Team

2023

National Ignition Facility Fusion Ignition Team

Actinium-225 Tri-Lab Research Team

Transforming Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Transuranic Waste Disposition Processes Team

Joint Los Alamos National Laboratory/Savannah River Site Pit Manufacturing Classification Guide Team

U.S. Department of Energy Fleet Management Team

Atmospheric-Test Film Scanning and Analysis Project Team

German FRM-II Low-Enriched Uranium Conversion Team 

U.S. Department of Energy Leadership in Climate Action Team

2022

W93 Phase 1 Concept Assessment Team

STPSat-6 Satellite Payloads Early On-orbit Test Team

Ukraine Detection Assistance Team

Capsule Gain Team

2020

Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute Material Removal Team

W76-2 Modification Team

Burning Plasma on the National Ignition Facility Team

Nuclear Incident Response Stabilization Team

COVID-19 Facilities and People Response Team

DOE National Laboratories' COVID-19 Testing Teams

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Radioisotope Power Systems Team

2019

Crowdsourcing Team

Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Denuclearization Team

DOE National Laboratories' COVID-19 Testing Teams

Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) Team

NSE Recruitment Team

Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) Supplier Quality Working Group

Pit Production Analysis Team

Seattle Response and Recovery and Cs-137 Joint Investigation Teams

Source Physics Experiment, Phase II

Spent Fuel NDA Project

Warhead Measurement Campaign Team

 

2016

Cube Sat

 

2015

RLUOB transition: teamwork and performance

 

2014

For outstanding and remarkable contributions to the Nation's Stockpile Stewardship program

 

2012

For providing accurate analyses of the amount of oil released into the Gulf and spill mitigation and containment strategies (regarding British Petroleum's Macondo Well resulting from the Deepwater Horizon accident)

Contributions on the thermoelectric generator that provides electrical power and heat to the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover

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