Prizes & Awards

Student Speaker Award

Each year, DSNP offers a Student Speaker Award for best contributed talk at the APS Global Physics Summit by a graduate student in the area of Statistical and Nonlinear Physics.

Up to five (5) finalists will be selected. Up to $500 in travel reimbursement will be provided to chosen finalists presenting their talk in-person. The first-place winner will receive an additional $500 stipend award. Prizes will be announced at the DSNP Business meeting. 

Nominations for the 2026 Global Physics Summit have been extended to October 29, 2025 by 11:59 PM ET.

Nomination Eligibility and Requirements

Students must be nominated by their dissertation advisor. 

Each nomination must include:

  • A letter from the nominator (normally the student's dissertation advisor)

  • Abstract of the student's talk (copy of the abstract already submitted to APS)

  • Student's CV or resume

To be considered for the Award the student must:

  1. be a DSNP member

  2. be currently pursuing a PhD

  3. not have completed the PhD requirements before the application deadline

  4. submit their abstract for the APS Global Physics Summit in one of the DSNP sessions (see dropdown in the nomination form), give an oral presentation in person at the meeting, and attend the DSNP Business Meeting & Reception.

Submit your nomination for the Student Speaker Award

 

Please contact honors@aps.org with any questions you may have about the application form. If you have questions regarding eligibility, please contact Craig Maloney, DSNP Secretary/Treasurer.

Guided by our core values, APS encourages nominations that reflect the full range of talent, distinction, and experience in our field, and supports broad canvassing for professionals across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.

Student Abstract

Past Winners and Finalists

2025

  • Jacob Adamczyk (UMB)
  • Reyk Börner (U Reading)
  • Theodore MacMillan (Stanford)
  • Jimmy Gonzalez Nunez (JHU)
  • Lindsay Smith (Princeton)
  • Matt Walker (UVA)

Winner: Andrew Pyo (Princeton)

2024

  • Vidyesh Rao Anisetti (Syracuse)
  • Agnish Behera (U Chicago)
  • Wenjun Chen (NYU)
  • Yu-Chen Chao (MIT)
  • Kanaya Malakar (Brandeis)
  • David Carcamo (Yale)
  • Wentao Yu (Emory)

Winner: Matthew Leighton (Simon Fraser)

2023

  • Jonathon Barbish (Virginia Tech)
  • Georgios Gounaris (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Olga Movilla Miangolarra (University of California, Irvine) 

Winner: Lucas Sá (Universidade of Lisbon) 

2022

  • Christopher Browne, University of Pennsylvania
  • Paul Baconnier, AMOLF
  • Wade Hodson, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Nathan Myers, Virginia Tech

Winner: Avishek Das, University of California, Berkeley

2020

  • Guram Gogia, Emory University
  • Eric Jones, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Jinghui Liu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Janaki Sheth, University of California, Los Angeles

Winner: Menachem Stern, University of Chicago

2019

  • Chantal Nguyen, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Nidhi Pashine, University of Chicago
  • Jason Kim, University of Pennsylvania
  • Andrea Welsh, Georgia Tech
  • Jacob Carroll, Virginia Tech

Winner: Chantal Nguyen, University of California, Santa Barbara

2018

  • Arif Abdulla (UIUC)
  • Daniel Case (Northwestern)
  • Adarsh Ganesan (Cambridge)
  • Erin Teich (Michigan)

Winner: Christopher Lynn (UPenn)

2017

  • Lisa Tran (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Jie Zhang (UIUC)
  • Meng Fang (Yale)
  • Chrisy Du (U. Mich)
  • Grant Rotskoff (UC Berkeley)
Winner: Chrisy Du (U. Mich)

2016

  • Stephen DeCamp, Brandeis University
  • Zachary Nicalaou, California Institute of Technology
  • Melinda Varga, University of Notre Dame
  • Yang Yang, Northwestern University
  • Jorge Zanudo, Pennsylvania State University

Winner: Yang Yang, Northwestern University

2015

  • Hatem Nuri Barghathi, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Thibault Bertrand, Yale University
  • David Meichle, University of Maryland
  • Gabriel Redner, Brandeis University
  • Eial Teomy, Tel Aviv University
Winner: Gabriel Redner, Brandeis University

2014

  • Diana Fusco, Duke University
  • Mohammad Khalid Jawed, MIT
  • Alex Lang, Boston University
  • Sumantra Sarkar, Brandeis University
  • Jesse Silverberg, Cornell University
Winner: Mohammad Khalid Jawed, MIT

2013

  • Yongjoo Baek, KAIST
  • Braden Brinkman, University of Illinois
  • Lei Dai, MIT
  • Somayeh Farhadi, Duke University
  • Dibyendu Mandal, University of Maryland
Winner: Dibyendu Mandal, University of Maryland

2012

  • Shiladitya Banerjee, Syracuse University
  • Bryan Chen, Pennsylvania State University
  • Gary Hunter, Emory University
  • Benjamin Machta, Cornell
  • Jie Ren, Duke University
Winner: Gary Hunter, Emory University

2011

  • Zhenyu Wang, University of Illinois
  • Anton Souslov, University of Pennsylvania)
  • Tao Jia, Virginia Tech
  • Nick Gravish, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Sahand Hormoz, Harvard University
Winner: Sahand Hormoz, Harvard University

2010

  • Elisabetta Matsumoto, University of Pennsylvania
  • Jessica Baker, Clark
  • Lucy Jane Colwell, Harvard University
  • Oren Elrad, Brandeis University
  • Georgios Tsekenis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Winner: Elisabetta Matsumoto, University of Pennsylvania

2009

  • Natalie Arkus, Harvard University
  • Kipton Barros, Boston University
  • Tom Haxton, University of Pennsylvania
  • Jordan Horowitzm, University of Maryland
  • Mya Warren, University of British Columbia

Winner: Kipton Barros, Boston University

2008

Five student finalists were selected to give their talk at the GSNP Student Award session (Session H39 at the 2008 March APS meeting).

  • Sharon Gerbode, Cornell University
  • Luca Giomi, Syracuse University
  • Carl Modes, University of Pennsylvania
  • Andrew Missel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Matthew Paoletti, University of Maryland
Winner: Matthew Paoletti, University of Maryland. Matthew received a $1,000 cash award. The rest will receive $200 each.

2007

  • Cesar Hidalgo, University of Notre Dame
  • Robert Hoy, Johns Hopkins University
  • Silke Henkes, Brandeis University
  • Santiago Andres Triana, University of Maryland
  • Kevin Wood, University of California, San Diego

Winner: Creighton Thomas, Syracuse University

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.