IOP Groups

Culham Thesis Prize

Terms of reference

The prize will be awarded annually to the candidate who has displayed excellence in the execution of the scientific method as witnessed by the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Plasma science from a UK or Irish university. The thesis content should exhibit significant new work and originality, clearly driven by the nominee, be well explained and demonstrate a good understanding of the subject. The prize consists of £500 in cash plus an expenses paid trip to the annual IOP plasma physics conference, where the recipient will be asked to give an invited talk. The prize is sponsored by UKAEA and jointly coordinated by UKAEA and the IOP Plasma Physics Group.

Eligibility

• The thesis must have been submitted in the last two calendar years leading up to the nomination deadline.
• The prize can go to a non-member of the Institute of Physics
• Non UK/Irish nationals are eligible but the PhD award must have been made at an Irish/UK university
• In the event that no candidate satisfies the criteria for the prize, the prize will lapse
• Unsuccessful theses can be re-submitted as long as a the Plasma Physics Group secretary has received a message to that effect from the supervisor
• Nominees are encouraged to propose only the highest quality pieces of work, with one nomination per nominee, noting there are no runner-up places for this prize.

Details of submission and nomination

Previous recipients

2008    Dr Louise Willingale, Imperial College London
           For significant experimental and numerical work on the acceleration of ions to high energies
           by laser-plasma interaction.

2007    Dr Phil Nilson, Imperial College London
           For Measurements of the Dynamics of Laser and Soft X-Ray Heated Targets by XUV and    
           Optical Probing.

2006    Dr Stuart P D Mangles, Imperial College London
           For measurements of relativistic electrons from intense laser-plasma interactions.

2005    Dr Barney Walton, Imperial College London
           For novel experimental investigations of beat-wave acceleration as intense electromagnetic fields
           interact with material in a plasma state.

2004    Dr Andrea Ciardi, Imperial College London
           For laboratory investigation and modelling of hypersonic jets in wire array Z-pinch experiments.

2003    Dr Roderick Kennedy, University of Oxford
           For innovative research on the application of probe theory to dust particles immersed in plasma.

2002    Dr Eugene Clark, Imperial College London
           For ground breaking research on proton and ion acceleration in ultra intense laser
           plasma interactions.

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