Ph.D. Thesis Prize

Annual Prize

The JLUO BoD will award the "2023 JSA Thesis Prize" for the best Jefferson Lab related thesis at the Annual Users Organization meeting this summer..

For the 2023 competition, the deadline is March 8, 2024 C.O.B. EST (we thank JSA for once again fully funding this prize). A complete package requires:

• a nomination letter by a senior scientist giving the name and institution of the person being nominated and the names of three people who will send letters of recommendation
• a copy of the thesis.
• the three letters of recommendation must be sent before the deadline, as well; it is up to the nominator and the candidate for the Prize to follow up on this.
• All materials must be submitted electronically to Lorelei Carlson (lorelei@jlab.org)

Theses completed during the calendar year 2023 are eligible, as well as theses completed during the last quarter of 2022 (if they haven't been submitted before). JSA employees and individuals receiving other support from the 2024 JSA Initiatives Fund Program are not eligible for this prize. The thesis prize submissions will be judged initially by members of JLUO BoD, followed by a panel of independent experts to select the final winner. Criteria for evaluation include quality of the written thesis, contribution of the student to the work, and contribution to JLab physics/community. The recipient will receive a commemorative plaque, a check of $2,500, an invitation and travel reimbursement up to $650 to present a talk and receive the prize at the 2024 Annual Users Group meeting at Jefferson Lab this June.

Please contact the vice chair- of JLUO BoD (Matt Shepherd <shepherd@jlab.org>) for any questions.

This project is supported by the Initiatives Fund Program, a JSA commitment, to support programs, initiatives, and activities that further the scientific outreach, promote the science, education and technology of Jefferson Lab and benefit the Lab’s extended user community in ways that complement the Lab’s basic and applied research missions.

Past Thesis Prize Award Winners (by year awarded)

2023: Allison Zec - High-Precision Beam Polarimetry for the CREX Experiment

2022: Devi Adhikari - Neutron Skin Measurement of 208^Pb Using Parity-Violating Electron Scattering

2021: Weizhi Xiong - A High Precision Measurement of the Proton Charge Radius at JLab

2020: Antoni Woss - The scattering of spinning hadrons from lattice QCD

2019: Kurtis Bartlett - First Measurements of the Parity-Violating and Beam-Normal Single-Spin Asymmetries in Elastic Electron-Aluminum Scattering

2018: Alessandro Baroni - Nuclear Axial Currents and Selected Applications to Few-Nucleon Systems.

2017: Priyashree Roy - Measurement of Polarization Observables in Vector Meson Photoproduction Using a Transversely-Polarized Frozen-Spin Target and Polarized Photons at CLAS, Jefferson Lab

2016: Or Hen - High-Momentum Nucleons in Nuclei

2015: Cristiano Fanelli - Measurements of Polarization Transfers in Real Compton Scattering by a proton target at JLAB: a new source of information on the 3D shape of the nucleon.

2015: Adesh Subedi - Determination of the weak charge of the proton through parity violating asymmetry measurements in the elastic e+p scattering

2014: Rakitha S. Beminiwattha - A Measurement of the Weak Charge of the Proton through Parity Violating Electron Scattering using the Qweak Apparatus: A 21% Result

2013: Katherine Myers - The First Determination of the Proton's Weak Charge Through Parity-Violating Asymmetry Measurements in Elastic e + p and e + Al Scattering

2012: Biplab Dey - Differential cross section and polarization extractions for γp → K+Σ0 and γp→ p using CLAS at Jefferson Lab, towards a partial wave analysis in search of missing baryon resonances

2011: Xin Qian - Measurement of Single Spin Asymmetry in n(e,e'π^+/-)X on Transversely Polarized ³He

2010: Daria Sokhan - Beam Asymmetry Measurement from Pion Photoproduction on the Neutron

2009: Andrew Puckett - Recoil Polarization Measurements of the Proton Electromagnetic Form Factor Ratio to High Momentum Transfer

2008: Guy Ron - The Proton Elastic Form Factor Ratio at Low Q²

2007: Michael Williams - Measurement of Differential Cross Sections and Spin Density Matrix Elements Along with a Partial Wave Analysis for γp --> p ω Using CLAS at Jefferson Lab

2007: Ian Cloet - Nucleon Structure Functions, Their Medium Modifications and the Polarized EMC Effect

2006: Jianglai Liu - A Measurement of the Strange Quark's Contribution to the Electromagnetic Form Factors of the Nucleon

2005: Carlos Munoz Camacho - Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering in Hall A of JLab

2004: Karl Slifer - Spin Structure of ³He and the Neutron at Low Q²; A Measurement of the Extended GDH Integral and the Burkhardt-Cottingham Sum Rule

2003: Ludyvine Morand - Measurement of the Electroproduction of ω Mesons at Large Four-Momentum Transfer

2002: Xiaochao Zheng - Precision Measurement of Neutron Spin Asymmetry A1n at Large X_bj Using CEBAF at 5.7 GeV

2001: Dave Gaskell - Longitudinal Electroproduction of Charged Pions from Hydrogen, Deuterium, and ³He

2000: Maud Baylac - A Measurement of the Polarization of the Jefferson Laboratory Electron Beam Via the Compton Effect for the HAPPEX Experiment on Parity Violating Elastic Electron-Proton Scattering

1999: Bart Terburg - High Energy Two-Body Deuteron Photodisintegration

1999: Ioanna Niculescu - Inclusive Resonance Electroproduction Data from Hydrogen and Deuterium and Studies of Quark Hadron Duality