SLAC Scientists win early career awards from the Department of Energy

SLAC scientists Dao Xiang, left, and Leonardo Senatore are two recipients of Early Career Research Awards, presented by the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Two SLAC physicists and an LCLS researcher from Berkeley Lab have won prestigious Early Career Research Awards from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. They are among 68 young researchers selected from a nationwide pool of 850 applicants.

The award winners are:

• DAO XIANG, a SLAC accelerator physicist who is working on a technique known as “external seeding” for improving the function of X-ray free electron lasers.
• LEONARDO SENATORE, a theoretical physicist with the SLAC-Stanford Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) who is applying particle physics techniques to answer questions in cosmology.
• OLIVER GESSNER, a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who is using the Linac Coherent Light Source to study the fundamental physics of a promising method for increasing the efficiency of solar cells.

The five-year grants, announced Tuesday by the DOE Office of Science, are designed to provide financial support to exceptional young researchers at a point in their careers when they may be long on ideas but short on research funds.

“These awards demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of the research going on at SLAC – from theory to cutting-edge experiments and the development of accelerator technology that will power the research of tomorrow,” said SLAC Director Persis Drell. “I offer my congratulations to these young scientists and their colleagues across the nation.”

Read the full announcement on the SLAC Today website.