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Universities Research Association 2022 Honorary Awards

Jun 15, 2022 | Fermilab

June 15, 2022

BATAVIA, ILL. — The Universities Research Association Inc. (URA) URA’s 2022 Honorary Awardees on June 15 during the Annual Fermilab Users Meeting.

URA President Dr. John Mester presented the awards to three Fermilab-associated scientists to congratulate them on their exceptional research. The awards are a part of the 55th Annual Fermilab Users June 13-17 meeting.

“It’s always a great honor for URA to be able to recognize the superb scientific talent that Fermilab nurtures,” URA President Dr. John Mester said. 

URA President John Mester (right) presents the 2022 Graduate Thesis Award to Dr. Maria Vincenzi (left) at Fermilab Annual Users Meeting. June 15, 2022. Photo: Ryan Postel/Fermilab.

Dr. Elizabeth Krause, Dr. Maria Vincenzi and Dr. Alexandra Amon will be receiving the awards in recognition of their research conducted at or in collaboration with Fermilab.

The Early Career Award congratulates outstanding work done at Fermilab or benefitting the post-scientific program by a doctorate researcher at Fermilab or at one of our URA universities who is within six years of a tenure-track appointment. This year’s award will go to University of Arizona’s Dr. Krause for her contributions to Fermilab’s Dark Energy Survey.

The Doctoral Thesis Award honors an outstanding doctoral thesis for work completed at Fermilab or in collaboration with Fermilab scientists. Dr. Maria Vincenzi of Duke University will receive the Graduate Thesis Award for her thesis titled, “Core-collapse contamination in photometric samples of Type Ia Supernovae”.

The Tollestrup Award for Postdoctoral Research, named after renowned Fermilab particle physicist Alvin Tollestrup, congratulates a postdoctoral research fellow who is within six years of their doctorate receipt for outstanding work at Fermilab or in collaboration with Fermilab scientists. This year’s award goes to Dr. Alexandra Amon of Stanford University. While at Fermilab, Dr. Amon focused on weak lensing with the Dark Energy Survey as well as other projects.

Dr. Elizabeth Krause, a recipient of the annual URA Early Career Award. Photo: University of Arizona.
Dr. Alexandra Amon, a recipient of the annual URA Tollestrup Award for Postdoctoral Research. Photo: The Dark Energy Survey.

“The awardees this year are great representatives of the amazing legacy of scientific expertise at Fermilab,” said Dr. Mester

URA President John Mester speaks at Fermilab about the three annual URA awards that recognizes outstanding scientific talent within the physics field. June 15, 2022. Photo: Ryan Postel/Fermilab.

URA provides a $10,000 stipend for each award recipient. The stipend is intended to further URA’s mission to promote the education and advancement of the next generation of scientists.

The Annual Users Meeting is currently underway and is taking place as a hybrid meeting. This year’s theme is “Focus on the Future” and will host keynote addresses by Fermilab’s Dr. Jonathan Jarvis, a 2020 DOE Early Career award recipient, and Farah Fahim, a senior electrical engineer at Fermilab. In addition, the meeting will include speaker Dr. Yangyang Cheng, LHC Physics Center distinguished researcher at Fermilab and fellow from Yale Law School’s Pual Tsai China Center.

URA awards are determined by a committee selected by the Fermilab director. These awards are presented annually at Fermilab’s Annual User Meeting. Additional information about URA awards can be found here.

Dr. Maria Vincenzi presents her dissertation titled, “Core-collapse Contamination in Photometric Samples of Type Ia Supernovae”. June 15, 2022. Photo: Ryan Postel/Fermilab.