Honors

Ernest Courant Outstanding Paper Recognition

To recognize one paper published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beam (PRAB) in the previous twelve-month period, primarily based on the potential impact on the field, innovation in the scientific or technical approach, and clarity of the exposition. This recognition honors the late Ernest Courant’s outstanding and long-lasting contributions to the field of accelerator science. The recognition consists of an allowance for travel to the APS April meeting at which the prize is awarded, for the first author or a delegate, and of a recognition certificate for all authors. It is presented annually.

Establishment & Support

The Courant recognition was established in 2021 by the Division of Physics and Beams in partnership with the Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (PRAB) journal.

Rules & Selection Process

The PRAB Editorial Board is responsible for selecting of order ten to twenty candidate papers. A committee formed of members of the DPB Publication Committee and a subset of the PRAB Editorial Staff is then charged with choosing the final paper for the recognition. The authors of the winning paper receive a recognition certificate, and the first author (or a delegate) is invited to present a talk on the topic of the paper at the APS April Meeting. The first recognition was announced in January 2022 for papers published in PRAB from July 2020 to June 2021.

2025 Selection Committee Members:

  • Carl Schroeder (Chair),  Alex Scheinker, Victor Smalyuk – DPB Publications Committee
  • Sara Casalbuoni, Nicolas Delerue, Vasiliy Morozov – PRAB Editorial Staff

2025 Recipients

Rachel A. Margraf, James P. MacArthur, Gabriel Marcus, Heinz-Dieter Nuhn, Alberto Lutman, Aliaksei Halavanau, Zhen Zhang, and Zhirong Huang

“Microbunch rotation in an x-ray free-electron laser using a first-order achromatic bend,”

Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 27, 030702 (2024) 

Past Recipients & Selection Committee

2024 Recipients

P. Raimondi, S. Liuzzo

“Toward a diffraction limited light source”, Physical Review Accelerators and Beams 26, 021601 (2023)

2024 Selection Committee Members:

  • Xiaobiao Huang (Chair), Nathan Cook, Massimo Giovannozzi, Qing Qin – DPB Publications Committee
  • Alicia Hofler;  Jeff Corbett, Frank Zimmermann – PRAB Editorial Staff

2023 Recipients

Mamdouh Nasr, Emilio Nanni, Martin Breidenbach, Stephen Weathersby, Marco Oriunno, and Sami Tantawi

For their paper on “Experimental demonstration of particle acceleration with normal conducting accelerating structure at cryogenic temperature.”

 

2023 Selection Committee Members:

  • Valeri Lebedev (Chair), Ivan Bazarov, Jean Delayen, Massimo Giovannozzi, Xiaobiao Huang, Qing Qin – DPB Publications Committee
  • Wolfram Fischer (co-Chair), Simone Di Mitri, Marlene Turner – PRAB Editorial Staff

2022 Recipients

Carlo Vicario, Simona Bettoni, Alberto Lutman, Andreas Dax, Martin Huppert, and Alexandre Trisorio

For their paper on “Two-color x-ray free-electron laser by photocathode laser emittance spoiler.”

2022 Selection Committee

  • Jean Delayen (Chair), Michael Litos, Andy Wolski – DPB Publications Committee
  • Eliana Gianfelice, Bob Laxdal, Dao Xiang – PRAB Editorial Staff