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PECASE Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

Recognizing young scientists and engineers

The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, established by President Clinton in 1996, is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Recipients are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and for their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. Awards are made at the White House.

The awards embody the high priority placed by the government on maintaining the leadership position of the United States in science by producing outstanding scientists and engineers who will broadly advance science and the missions important to the participating agencies. The awards support the continued development of the awardees, foster innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the nation's future.

For additional information, view the PECASE recipient list.

Recipients

2025

Amy Lovell
Ryan Wollaeger

2019

Abigail Hunter

A technical thought leader within the Laboratory’s weapons program and our materials modeling community, as well as an internationally recognized expert in materials science and the physics of solid-state materials. She has established a critical skill set that serves her in a unique position at the intersection of Los Alamos’ physics modeling, software development and supporting science endeavors.

Shea Mosby

Shea is a deep-thinking early career scientist who has contributed to many of the nuclear reaction measurements done at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. He is currently developing a novel concept to measure nuclear reactions in radioactive isotopes. Mosby recently began investigating novel approaches to measuring neutron-induced reactions for radioactive isotopes, which preclude traditional measurement techniques.

2017

John Yeager

An innovative early-career scientist, exemplifying a generation of scientists applying world-class cutting-edge science to pressing national-security missions, John leads an exciting research program employing in situ probes to understand how the meso-structure of explosives affects their performance and safety.

2016

David Mascarenas

David’s outstanding multidisciplinary engineering research focuses on the development of cyber-physical systems that will improve the safety and reliability of civilian and defense infrastructure, innovative approaches for human-computer interfacing, advancing the capabilities of ground and aerial robotic sensing systems, and helping to detect nuclear materials.

2011

Amy Clarke

Clarke was nominated by the National Nuclear Security Administration of the Department of Energy for her research on uranium niobium alloy deformation mechanisms using micro-pillar compression testing to determine the influence of orientation on stress-strain response, for using in-situ solidification and proton radiography with potential to finally resolve liquid-solid processing questions relevant to nuclear weapons, and for mentoring future ferrous metallurgists.

2010

Evgenya Simakov

Pioneering development of specially designed structures for high-energy particle accelerators that mitigate undesirable byproducts of high-energy particle acceleration; also selected for outreach activities and leadership in the advanced accelerator community. Proposal: Advancing Our Understanding of Photonic Band Gap Structures for Accelerators.

2009

Eric Bauer

Pioneering research in condensed matter physics through the discovery and synthesis of new materials.

2008

Ivan Vitev

A recognized leader in the nuclear physics community at LANL, Ivan has assisted research at the U.S. Department of Energy's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and he is leading a theoretical effort to measure energy loss in jets of high-energy particles at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

2007

Jennifer S. Martinez

Discovery characterization of templated nanomaterials, biomolecular recognition strategies, natural  products of marine bacteria for robust biological sensing and for exemplary career-development mentoring of women.

2005

Karissa Sanbonmatsu

Modeling the Ribosome: Creating largest simulation of a biological system to study ribosomal function.

1999

Xian Chen

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