The ICMC Cryogenic Materials Award for Excellence, is awarded annually at the ICMC Conference, subject to the nomination of an appropriate candidate, to an individual, who is under 40 years of age by the application deadline, to “recognize excellence in advancing the knowledge of cryogenic materials over recent years”.

Nominations
Nominations can be made by anyone in the field. The nomination will consist of a letter (of length not exceeding two pages) addressed to the Awards Committee Chairman by the nominator that contains a thorough description of the candidate’s achievements in the field of cryogenic materials science and technology. A CV and a publication list of the candidate should be attached.

The nomination letter will address in detail:

  • The quality of the candidate’s research performed over the past years with emphasis on recent work;
  • The innovation of the candidate’s research over recent years;
  • The international recognition gained for the candidate’s work over recent years;
  • The candidate’s impact on the field over recent years.

Specific indicators of excellence and suitability for the award include, but are not limited to;

  • The first-time application of a new experimental or theoretical technique;
  • Demonstration of key fundamental insight that impacts multiple levels of material use;
  • Construction of a new and unique installation or measurement facility;
  • Synthesis or fabrication of a new material, or development of a new synthesis or fabrication process;
  • The sustained publication of high quality, well-cited papers in technical or scientific journals.

Two further letters of support for each candidate are required, in addition to the main letter of nomination, to qualify for the selection procedure. These should address the same criterion as the main nomination letter (indicated by the bullet points above). The candidate must necessarily be active in the field of ICMC.

Selection Procedures
The nominations will be evaluated by the Awards Committee. Each member will rank the candidates (1st choice, 2nd choice, etc.) and communicate his/her ranking to the Committee Chairman. The result of this procedure will be discussed among the Committee members and communicated to the Board, whose endorsement of the selection (majority of Board members) is required. In case of the nomination of a Board member, the Awards Committee Chairman will take special steps to maintain confidentiality.

The Award
The award consists of:

  • a certificate signed by the ICMC Chair;
  • a check for $2,500;
  • an invitation to the award winner (and his / her partner) to the ICMC conference (travel expense and accommodation reimbursement, up to $1,500), and a waived conference registration fee for this conference;
  • an invitation to give a presentation at the conference at which the award is made and/or to coordinate a technical session around the awardee’s area of research.

The deadline for the nominations for the 2025 Conference is December 12, 2024.

Please submit your nominations, preferably by e-mail, to the Awards Committee Chairman:

Prof. Eric Hellstrom
The Applied Superconductivity Center,
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Florida State University
2031 E. Paul Dirac Dr
Tallahassee, FL 32310 USA


Former Recipients

Fumitake Kametani 2014
Kazumasa Iida 2016
Tengming Shen 2017
Anna Kario and Akiyasu Yamamoto 2018
Kohei Higashikawa 2019
Dongliang Wang 2020
Mark Ainslie 2021
Shreyas Balachandran 2023