In honor of a leading scientist, Professor Neil Ashcroft (November 1938 – March 2021), who has made many contributions to the broader condensed matter physics and high pressure research fields, an award has been established (with generous endowment by Ashcroft family) to recognize outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions by an early-career scientist for studies of matter at extreme high pressure conditions. This includes static and/or dynamic compressions within the disciplines of Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Earth and Planetary Science, Soft Matter and Biology. The honor is conferred annually as part of American Physical Society Honors and includes a certificate citing the contributions and a monetary award of $5,000.

The award is open world-wide and covers all areas of high pressure research – see APS posting for details https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/ashcroft.cfm.  Award recipient is selected through a competitive review process by internationally recognized committee members from the high pressure research community. The annual nominations selection process opens mid-April each year and closes June 01.

Established in 2022, the inaugural year award was recently presented to Richard Kraus from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during the 2023 APS Shock Compression of Condensed Matter (SCCM) conference in Chicago, IL. 

			Professor Russell Hemley, Director of the Chicago-DOE Alliance Center (CDAC), University of Illinois Chicago – presents a keynote lecture on “Ashcroft Seminal Impact on High Pressure and Condensed Matter Research”
			Dr. Richard Kraus (L) receiving the inaugural 2022 Ashcroft award from Nenad Velisavljevic (R), the selection committee chair.

We thank the inaugural committee members: Nenad Velisavljevic (Chair, High Pressure Collaborative Access Team (HPCAT) and LLNL), Professor Roald Hoffmann (Cornell University), Dr. Cynthia Bolme (LANL), Professor Norimasa Ozaki (Osaka University), Professor Justin Wark (University of Oxford), Professor Shanti Deemyad (University of Utah), and Professor Eva Zurek (University at Buffalo). 

Thanks to Delia Cruz Nochebuena

Honors Nominations Coordinator,

American Physical Society (APS)