DPF Software & Computing Rising Star(s) Award

The DPF Software & Computing Rising Star(s) Award celebrates individuals at an early career stage who have demonstrated exceptional innovation, creativity, technical excellence, and community engagement in developing or applying software and computing solutions. The award serves to recognize emerging leaders whose work enhances data analysis, simulation, computing infrastructure, operations, or collaborative research capabilities.

While the award is nominations-based, self-nominations are permitted.

Nominees must:

Be within 15 years of their terminal degree
Have made significant contributions to software and computing with a clear impact on particle physics, with due account for interruptions and other factors in nominees’ careers.

Nominations must include:

Nomination Statement: A concise summary (one page limit) describing the nominee’s contributions, emphasizing their impact and relevance to particle physics.
Two additional supporting/seconding letters
A biographical sketch or CV of the nominee
Supporting materials that can include links to code repositories, documentation

Nominations will be evaluated on the following criteria:

Impact/Significance: demonstrable impact on software and computing (adoption, open-source contributions, deployments, citations).
Innovation/Originality: novelty of ideas, methods, and tools.
Community & DEI Contributions: mentoring, outreach, inclusive practices, accessible software.
Strength of Evidence: quality of materials (artifacts, docs), letters, reproducibility.

Winners will be invited to present at the annual CPSC community meeting.

Submit your nomination here. Follow this walkthrough for locating the nomination form.

2026 Deadline: February 20, 2026

Contact honors@aps.org with any questions.