Prizes

PANAlytical Thesis Prize for Physical Crystallography

The Physical Crystallography Group is pleased to invite entries for the PANAlytical Thesis Prize in Physical Crystallography. The prize will be awarded for the best use of techniques or methods of Physical Crystallography in a successfully-examined thesis submitted in the period from September 1st 2005 to December 31st 2006. The amount of the prize, which will be sponsored by PANAlytical Ltd, will be £500. To be eligible for the prize, candidates must be a member of the Structural Condensed Matter Group of the IOP and/or the British Crystallographic Association (BCA). Non-members may enter the competition but will be required to join the BCA at the student rate (currently £7.00) to progress their nomination further.

To enter the competition, candidates must submit

(a) a copy of the Thesis on CD-ROM.

(b) a personal statement of not more than 500 words explaining why the Thesis should be considered for the prize and including a clear description of the role of Physical Crystallography (as interpreted below or otherwise) in the research.

(c) The names and contact details of two academic referees, one of whom may be the Thesis supervisor, who will be able to comment on the Thesis research of the candidate.

In order for a thesis to be eligible for the award, the Physical Crystallography element must be central to the work of the thesis, which must also demonstrate a context over and above structural work for its own sake.

Nominations for the prize must be submitted to the Chair of the Physical Crystallography Group, Prof Paolo Radaelli, by April 10th 2007 and the prize will be awarded at the 2007 BCA Spring Meeting in Kent, April 2007.

Remit of Physical Crystallography in connection with Prizes.

Methods and techniques of Physical Crystallography will be interpreted in a broad fashion, for example, to include x-ray and neutron diffraction or scattering, Rietveld analysis and structure refinement, total scattering, structure-property relationships, development of structure-solution techniques, crystallography under non-ambient conditions, use of complementary techniques to diffraction (e.g. optical studies, NMR), computational crystallography and modelling, electron diffraction, diffuse scattering, applications of physical crystallography in biology.

Previous winners

• 2006 Andrew Goodwin (Cambridge University) "Dynamics from powder diffraction"

• 2005 Dominic Fortes (UCL) "Crystallisation of Ammonia Hydrates under High Pressure "

Prize Lecture for Physical Crystallography

Prize rules in pdf format

History of the Prize

For many years, Phillips Analytical have sponsored a prize lecture in physical crystallography. Since the purchase of Philips Analytical by Spectris PLC in September 2002 the company is trading under the name of PANalytical Limited. PANalytical agreed to continue to sponsor the annual award for Physical Crystallography, which was renamed the "PANalytical Physical Crystallography Award". Since the 2006 edition, the PCG Committee has been directly sponsoring the prize, which has been again renamed the "Physical Crystallography Award". The award is presented for the best recently published work (say 2-3 papers in the last few years) by a person in the early stages of their career in the field of Physical Crystallography. It is to be expected that his or her research has or is expected to make a significant impact in this field. The award is traditionally made at the Annual BCA Spring Meeting and the recipient is expected to give an oral presentation of his or her work at that meeting. The committee of the Physical Crystallography Group (also known as the Structural Condensed Matter Group of the IoP) decide on the awardee and PANalytical sponsor the prize, which currently consists of a cash award of £500 plus expenses for attending the Spring Meeting to deliver the award lecture. The Award is presented by a representative of PANalytical.

Nominations for the next prize will be sought at the end of 2007.

Previous winners

• 2006 Matt Tucker (Cambridge University) "Studying Disordered Crystalline Materials with Total Scattering and Reverse Monte Carlo Modelling"

• 2004 Andrew Wills (UCL)