Honors

Prizes & Awards

Serving a diverse and inclusive community of physicists worldwide is a primary goal for APS and APS-DPP. Nominations of qualified women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and scientists from outside the United States are especially encouraged.

To browse all APS prize, award, medal, lectureship and dissertation award recipients and read their citations click here.

James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics

Annual Award

Purpose: To recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of properties of highly ionized gases of natural or laboratory origin.

More Info & Nomination

Award: $10,000, a DPP meeting registration waiver and travel allowance, and a certificate citing the contribution.

2020 Recipient: "For leadership in and pioneering contributions to the theory and kinetic simulations of nonlinear processes in plasma-based acceleration, and relativistically intense laser and beam plasma interactions."

Warren Bicknell Mori
University of California, Los Angeles
Warren Bicknell Mori

John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research

Annual Award

PurposeTo recognize a particular recent outstanding achievement in plasma physics research.

More Info & Nomination

Award: $5,000 divided equally in the case of multiple recipients, a DPP meeting registration waiver and travel allowance, and a certificate citing the contribution.

2020 Recipients: "For generating Weibel-mediated collisionless shocks in the laboratory, impacting a broad range of energetic astrophysical scenarios, plasma physics, and experiments using high energy and high power lasers conducted at basic plasma science facilities."

Anatoly Spitkovsky
Princeton University
Anatoly Spitkovsky
Christoph Niemann
University of California Los Angeles
Christoph Niemann
Dmitri Ryutov
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (retired)
Dmitri Ryutov
Frederico Fiuza
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Frederico Fiuza
Gianluca Gregori
University of Oxford
Gianluca Gregori
Hideaki Takabe
Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR)
Hideaki Takabe
Hye-Sook Park
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Hye-Sook Park
James Steven Ross
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Steve Ross
R Paul Drake
University of Michigan
R. Paul Drake
William Fox
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
William Fox
Youichi Sakawa
Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University
Youichi Sakawa

Katherine Weimer Award for Women in Plasma Science

Biennial Award

Purpose: To recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in plasma science research by a woman physicist in the early years of her career.

More Info & Nomination

Award: $4,000, a DPP meeting registration waiver, a certificate citing the contribution, and an invited talk.

2021 Recipient: For contributions to the understanding of the radiation belts, in particular by pioneering the technique of ‘event-specific’ radiation belt modeling to distinguished different physical processes that control radiation belt dynamics.

Dr. Weichao Tu
West Virginia University
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Landau-Spitzer Award

Biennial Award

Purpose: To recognize outstanding theoretical, experimental, or technical contribution(s) in plasma physics and for advancing the collaboration and unity between Europe and the United States of America by joint research or research that advances knowledge that benefits the two communities in a unique way.

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Award: $4,000, a meeting registration waiver, and a certificate citing the contribution. The person or team receiving the award will be offered an invited talk at the forthcoming annual conference of APS-DPP or EPS-DPP, depending on the affiliation of the recipient(s).

2020 Recipients: "For major advancements of the shock ignition concept through collaborative experimental and simulation efforts in inertial confinement fusion research."

Riccardo Betti
University of Rochester

Alexis Casner
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA

Xavier Ribeyre
University of Bordeaux-CNRS-CEA

Wolfgang Theobald
University of Rochester

Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award

Annual Award

Purpose: To recognize exceptional young scientists who have performed original thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics. 

More Info & Nomination

Award: $2,000, a DPP meeting registration waiver, a certificate citing the contribution, and an invited talk on the recipient’s doctoral research at the DPP meeting.

2020 Recipient: "For elegantly describing three-wave coupling in plasma modified by oblique magnetic fields, identifying applications including plasma-based laser amplifiers, and adapting quantum field theory to describe plasma physics in the strong-field regime."

Yuan Shi
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
Yuan Shi

Thomas H. Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics Research

Annual Award

PurposeTo recognize an individual researcher who has made outstanding contributions (theoretical, experimental, computational, or technical) in plasma physics early in their career. Areas of plasma physics covered by the Award include, but are not limited to, fundamental plasma physics, fusion plasmas, astrophysical or space plasmas, low-temperature plasmas, or high-energy-density plasmas.

More Info & Nomination Support the Thomas H. Stix Award


Award: $3,000, a DPP meeting registration waiver and travel allowance, and a certificate citing the contribution, and up to two complimentary DPP meeting banquet tickets.

2020 Recipient: "For fundamental advances to the kinetic theory of strongly-coupled plasma and plasma sheaths."

Scott Baalrud
University of Iowa
Scott Baalrud

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Nominees for and holders of APS Honors (prizes, awards, and fellowship) and official leadership positions are expected to meet standards of professional conduct and integrity as described in the APS Ethics Guidelines. Violations of these standards may disqualify people from consideration or lead to revocation of honors or removal from office.