Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award in Experimental Particle Physics
This award recognizes exceptional early-career scientists who have performed original doctoral thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of experimental particle physics. The annual award consists of $2,500, a certificate, travel reimbursement up to $1,500, and a registration waiver to receive the award and give an invited talk at a meeting of the APS Division of Particles and Fields (DPF), or a DPF session at APS April Meeting.
Rules and eligibility
Nominations will be accepted for any doctoral student studying at a college or university in North America including their study-abroad programs, for dissertation research carried out in the field of experimental particle physics. Nominees must pass their thesis defense not more than 24 months before the nomination deadline of September 1.
A candidate may be renominated once for this award in the year following their original nomination provided all other eligibility criteria are still met. In this case a new nomination package must be submitted to the Committee, stating that the candidate had been nominated the previous year.
Process and selection
The nomination package should include:
- A full copy of the nominee's PhD thesis, along with up to four publications and/or reports describing the work.
- A thesis summary of no more than two pages prepared by the nominee.
- A brief summary of the thesis suitable for distribution as the basis of an article in the popular press.
- A complete curriculum vitae of the nominee, including a list of publications.
- A nominating letter from the thesis advisor stating (a) the date of the thesis defense and the date the final thesis document was presented to the graduate school, (b) the role of the nominee in writing any parts of the thesis that have been published or submitted for publication (please identify these parts of the thesis), and (c) the specific contributions of the nominee, making comparisons with others.
- At least two letters supporting the nomination.
- Demographics form (if known/wish to specify age, gender, race, and ethnicity of the nominee)
Selection Committee
- Kevin Black
- David Toback
- Verena Martinez Outschoorn
- Jennifer Raaf
- Juan Collar
Establishment and support
The award was established in 1999 in memory of Dr. Mitsuyoshi Tanaka with funding provided by friends and family.
Recent recipients
Christina Wang
2026 recipient
For pioneering a novel technique using CMS muon chambers to search for weakly-coupled sub-GeV mass dark matter using long-lived particle searches, and for groundbreaking work in quantum sensing to enable new probes of dark matter.
Gray Putnam
2025 recipient
For outstanding work on the calibration of the ICARUS liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detector and a search for new physics through the di-muon channel at ICARUS.
Charles Mark Lewis
2024 recipient
For the development of techniques expanding the low-energy reach of new particle detector technologies, with applications in neutrino physics, dark matter searches, and the study of charged-lepton flavor violating modes of muon decay.
Cristian Xavier Baldenegro Barrera
2023 recipient
For outstanding work on the measurement of strongly interacting color-singlet and photon exchange in proton-proton collisions at the LHC and development of the Forward Physics Monte Carlo (FPMC) generator.
Melissa A. Hutcheson
2022 recipient
For work on the construction and operation of the KOTO experiment to search for the decay KL->pi0nunubar.
APS Honors recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of the global physics community. Guided by our core values, APS Honors encourages nominations that reflect the full range of talent, distinction, and experience in our field, and supports broad canvassing for professional achievement across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.
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 Standards. Violations of these standards may disqualify people from consideration or lead to revocation of honors or removal from office.