Charles Perdrisat is named co-recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Nuclear Physicist Prize
Outstanding Nuclear Physicist: Charles Perdrisat is professor emeritus in William & Mary’s Department of Physics. Jefferson Science Associates recently named Perdrisat a co-recipient of its 2017 Outstanding Nuclear Physicist Prize. Photo by Stephen Salpukas
Jefferson Science Associates, LLC, announced today that William & Mary physicist Charles Perdrisat is a co-recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Nuclear Physicist Prize.
The award will be presented to Perdrisat and co-recipient Charles Sinclair during a ceremony to be held at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News.
Jefferson Lab is a world-leading nuclear physics research laboratory managed and operated by Jefferson Science Associates for the U.S. Department of Energy.
JSA board vice chairs Jerry Draayer and Karl Williams, applauded the selection panel’s choice, noting that the scientific and technical contributions made by Perdrisat and Sinclair in the field of beam polarization dynamics have been recognized by their peers and evidenced in the strong recommendations both received with their nominations.
In a letter supporting Perdrisat’s nomination, Stanford University/SLAC professor Stanley Brodsky said, “[Perdrisat’s] leadership of the polarization transfer studies in electron-proton scattering has been a truly extraordinary achievement.”
Jefferson Lab Director Stuart Henderson welcomed the news, saying, “This joint award is quite fitting as both recipients have made exceptional contributions to unraveling the structure of the nucleon, through pioneering measurements in the case of Prof. Perdrisat, and through the development of key technologies that was essential to enabling those measurements, in the case of Dr. Sinclair.”
Perdrisat, a professor emeritus in the William & Mary Department of Physics, holds the Doctor of Natural Science degree from the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. Prior to joining the faculty at William & Mary in 1966, he served as a visiting professor at the Federal Institute of Technology and the Institut de Physique Nucléaire, in Orsay, France. He has been involved with the Jefferson Lab science program since the mid-1990s.
Perdrisat was named a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1992. He is the recipient of the 2017 Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics from the American Physical Society in recognition of his work on experiments at Jefferson Lab.
The JSA Outstanding Nuclear Physicist Award, established in 2011 and awarded biennially, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding and sustained contributions including technical achievements in experimental and/or theoretical research related to the nuclear physics program at Jefferson Lab.
The award, funded through the JSA Initiatives Fund Program and managed by the JSA Programs Committee, is presented at Jefferson Lab during the annual Users Group meeting. The Users Group comprises scientists from the U.S. and abroad who use Jefferson Lab’s facilities to conduct experiments.
The panel charged with making the selection for this year’s award was chaired by Robert McKeown, deputy director for science and technology at Jefferson Lab, and Governor's Distinguished CEBAF Professor of Physics at William & Mary.
