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The nineth set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 11th 2024 at CERN. The submitted nominations were considered by the committee formed by Sneha Malde (chair), Yasmine Amhis (physics coordinator), Francesco Polci (operations coordinator), Marianna Fontana (RTA project leader deputy), Niko Neufeld (deputy resources coordinator) and Ulrich Uwer (deputy spokesperson). |
          From left to right: Oscar Boente Garcia, Kara Mattioli, Chiara Lucarelli, Hangyi Wu, Elisabeth Niel, Menglin Xu, Emir Muhammad Jiahui Zhuo, Thomas Boettcher and Kate Richardson |
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Oscar Boente Garcia (LLR),
Kara Mattioli (LLR) and Chiara Lucarelli (Firenze) For R&D simulation studies for the cases of oxygen and hydrogen SMOG2 injections in LHCb.Contribution to the development and tuning of all SMOG2 Hlt2 and sprucing lines tuning as well as early assessment of the physics performance in lead-lead and lead-argon. - Hangyi Wu (Syracuse) For outstanding and wide contributions to the construction, installation, commissioning, operation and simulation of the UT detector. - Elisabeth Niel (EPFL) For outstanding contributions to the commissioning and operation of the SciFi detector. - Menglin Xu (Warwick) and Emir Muhammad (Warwick) For an outstanding contribution to Simulation. These include contributions to the detector project to allow all 5 versions of the LHCb detector to be supported together. This is crucial progress towards using the DD4Hep detector description in simulation and for upgrade 2 studies. - Jiahui Zhuo (IFIC), Thomas Boettcher (Cincinnati) and Kate Richardson (MIT) For the invaluable contribution to the Hlt1 developments. These included framework, tracking, event model, event selection and ghost reduction improvements, together with a novel infrastructure for monitoring the HLT1 system reconstruction and selection performance in real time. |
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The eighth set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 07th 2023 at CERN. The submitted nominations were considered by the committee formed by Will Barter (chair), Carmelo D'Ambrosio (resource coordinator), Matteo Palutan (deputy spokesperson), Francesco Polci (operations coordinator), Yasmine Amhis (physics coordinator) and Carla Marin Benito (RTA Project Leader). |
 From left to right: Florian Reiss, Biljana Mistreska, Jake Reich, Sophie Hollitt, Abhijit Mathad, Gary Robertson, Marian Stahl, Christina Agapopoulou, Giovanni Bassi, Edoardo Franzoso |
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Florian Reiss
(Manchester), Biljana Mitreska(Dortmund), Jake Reich
(Bristol) and Sophie Hollitt (Dortmund) For enabling the alignment of the LHCb detector during 2022, and for developing the real-time alignment strategy for Run 3. - Abhijit Mathad (Zurich) For the development of the offline analysis tool FunTuple, and for ongoing support in the DPA project. - Marian Stahl and Christina Agapopoulou (CERN) For the development and commissioning of the HLT software for Run 3. - Gary Robertson (Edinburgh) and Edoardo Franzoso (Ferrara) For the successful commissioning of the RICH detector for Run 3. - Giovanni Bassi (Pisa) For the development, implementation and commissioning of FPGA-based VELO clustering algorithm, and broader contributions to the VELO commissioning. |
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The seventh set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 14th 2022 at CERN. The submitted nominations were considered by the committee formed by Irina Nasteva (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Matteo Palutan (deputy spokesperson), Silvia Gambetta (operations coordinator), Niels Tuning (physics coordinator) and Marco Cattaneo (Upgrade Software Planning Group Chair). |
 From left to right: Maarten van Veghel, Saverio Mariani, Sevda Esen, Valeriia Zhovkovska, Maarten Van Dijk, Fabio Ferrari, Vladyslav Orlov |
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| - Maarten van Veghel
(Groningen) For his extraordinary contribution in rewriting and improving the LHCb electron reconstruction and identification, in order to successfully cope with the challenges of Run 3 data taking. - Saverio Mariani (Firenze) For his pioneering work on the real-time reconstruction of beam-gas collisions, a key ingredient to deliver the LHCb Run 3 fixed-target physics programme. - Sevda Esen (Zurich) For her outstanding contribution to ensure the persistence of the data produced by the HLT, without which our physics data cannot be analysed. - PLUME team: Valeriia Zhovkovska (Orsay), Maarten Van Dijk (Lausanne), Fabio Ferrari (Bologna), Vladyslav Orlov (CERN) For their transformative contribution in the conception, optimisation, construction, testing and commissioning of the new PLUME luminometer, all within three years, in time for Run 3 operation. |
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The sixth set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 17th 2021 during a ceremony that was held over zoom. The submitted nominations were considered by the committee formed by Eli Ben Haim (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Matteo Palutan (deputy spokesperson), Concezio Bozzi (computing coordinator), Silvia Gambetta (operations coordinator) and Niels Tuning (physics coordinator). |
 From left to right: Adam Davis, Scott Ely, Christoph Hasse, Arthur Hennequin, Louis Henry, Niklas Nolte, Preema Rennee Pais, Benedetto Siddi, Nicole Skidmore |
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| - Scott Ely (Syracuse) For his extraordinary leadership of the UT project and the exceptional and well-organized coordination of all activities during a very difficult time at CERN. - Preema Rennee Pais (CERN) For her tireless efforts as project leader of the ST in Run-2 and for her achievements as coordinator of the control and monitoring activities for the SciFi tracker, and as deputy commissioning coordinator for the whole of LHCb. - Nicole Skidmore (Manchester) For her outstanding contribution as stripping coordinator and the pioneering work in OATF leading to the creation of the DPA project. - Simulation team - Adam Davis (Manchester) and Benedetto Siddi (INFN, Ferrara) For their innovative contributions to the LHCb simulation, the development and implementation of a new fully parametrized fast simulation engine, Lamarr. - RTA team - Christoph Hasse (CERN), Arthur Hennequin (CERN), Louis Henry (CERN) and Niklas Nolte (MIT) For their achievements and ground-breaking developments for the LHCb software trigger and the real-time analysis system. |
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The fifth set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 11st 2020 during a ceremony that was held over zoom. The submitted nominations were considered by the committee formed by Francesca Dordei (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Chris Parkes (deputy spokesperson), Concezio Bozzi (computing coordinator), Silvia Borghi (operations coordinator) and Mat Charles (physics coordinator). |
 From left to right: Carlos Abellan Beteta, Claudia Bertella, Daniel Campora, Nadim Conti, Edgar Lemos Cid, Olli Lupton, Mark Smith, Dorothea vom Bruch |
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| - Carlos Abellan Beteta
(Zurich) and Nadim Conti (INFN, Milan) For their leading contributions to the Upstream Tracker (UT) project. Carlos led the development of the UT firmware and designed a data acquisition system used in the wafer test of the SALT ASICs. Nadim designed, and determined how to efficiently test, both the four-chip front-end hybrid, that is used in the silicon-front-end modules, and the long flex cables that carry the signals. - Daniel Campora (Nikhef) and Dorothea vom Bruch (LPNHE, Paris) For co-leading the exceptional effort that allowed to deliver Allen, an HLT1 trigger fully implemented on GPUs. Daniel and Dorothea co-led the development of Allen, taking it from concept to near-production readiness in two years, while training a number of students and postdocs in GPU programming. - Edgar Lemos Cid (Santiago de Compostela) and Claudia Bertella (CERN) For their outstanding contributions to the LHCb VELO Upgrade. Edgar and Claudia jointly developed the slice test and the module readout components, performing the thermal characterisation of the modules. The scripts and conditions for this test were adopted by the module assembly sites. - Olli Lupton (Warwick) For his excellent contributions to the design and implementation of the real-time processing software for the LHCb Upgrade. In particular, Olli has rewritten much of the code used to apply selections, both making it fast enough to run in HLT1 and making it flexible enough to serve as a foundation for HLT2 and eventual offline applications. - Mark Smith (Imperial College) For his remarkable contributions to the distributed analysis software Ganga and to the calibration of the VELO tracking. Mark contributed significantly to the development of Ganga, the software that enables all users to perform physics analyses at LHCb. He determined from the data the resolution of the hits in the VELO providing vital inputs for the track reconstruction. |
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The fourth set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 21st 2019 at CERN. The submitted nominations were considered by the committee formed by Arantza Oyanguren (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Chris Parkes (deputy spokesperson), Concezio Bozzi (computing coordinator), Silvia Borghi (operations coordinator) and Mat Charles (physics coordinator). |
 Chris and Philipp |
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Chris Burr For outstanding contribution to LHCb in the area of
software and computing. Chris introduced many innovative tools
to make the physics production software environment more and
more automated and user friendly to improve reliability and ease
the activity of the production teams. - Philip Garsed For exceptional contribution to the RICH Upgrade project. Philip gave provided crucial contributions to the design optimization and implementation of the RICH readout electronics. |
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The third set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 15th 2018 at CERN. Twenty-seven nominations were submitted and considered by the committee formed by Jonas Rademacker (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Chris Parkes (deputy spokesperson), Stefan Roiser (computing coordinator), Silvia Borghi (operations coordinator) and Vincenzo Vagnoni (physics coordinator). |
 From left to right: João, Wiktor, Oscar, Sofia, Dominik, Alex |
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| - João Vitor Viana Barbosa For the transformational contributions to the Online Framework for LHCb and LHCb upgrade. João designed and developed all the infrastructure software and firmware used to control, configure and monitor the electronics of the upgraded sub-detectors. He also developed some of the most useful monitoring tools for shifters. - Wiktor Byczynski & Oscar Augusto De Aguiar Francisco For the development of micro channel cooling for the VELO upgrade. Oscar and Wiktor made crucial contributions in the development of the bi-phase CO2 cooling micro-channels embedded in silicon substrate for the LHCb VELO upgrade modules, thus implementing a fundamentally new cooling concept for instrumentation. In the process, they overcame many obstacles with a unique mix of expertise and inventiveness, developing new and innovative solutions. - Sofia Kotriakhova For exceptional contributions to LHCb operations. Sofia made critical improvements to the Experimental Control System for the muon detectors, which improve data taking efficiency, increasing lifespan of GEM detectors and automate common tasks. Sofia is also LHCb most dedicated shifter. In 2017: 25 muon piquet and 24 shift leader shifts (highest number in LHCb). - Dominik Müller For exceptional contributions to computing, in particular speeding up LHCb Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. Dominik developed “ReDecay”, which speeds up LHCb event generation by a factor of 10-50. This is a crucial development for LHCb and its upgrade. He also developed other tools leading to substantial MC speed-up, such as the option to selectively switch off sub detectors. - Alex Pearce For the development of Turbo-SP concept. Turbo-SP is a technique to selectively persist only the interesting part of an event within the trigger. Thanks to this concept, the size of the Turbo stream data was reduced by almost a factor of two from 2016 to 2017. Turbo SP is not only a crucial element of current LHCb data taking, but also a key element of the all-software trigger of the LHCb upgrade. |
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The second set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists were awarded on June 16th 2017. Twenty-nine nominations were submitted and considered by the committee formed by Patrick Robbe (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Monica Pepe-Altarelli (deputy spokesperson), Stefan Roiser (computing coordinator), Silvia Borghi (operations coordinator) and Vincenzo Vagnoni (physics coordinator). |
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| - Elena
Dall’Occo For the evaluation and assessment of the silicon sensors that will be used in the upgrade of the LHCb VELO detector. Elena implemented tests in the laboratory and in test beam, using novel techniques, to measure the key parameters of the sensor performance, such as the charge collection and response to irradiation, especially at the edge, a very critical area. These measurements led to the choice of the sensor technology and vendor for the VELO upgrade. - Giulio Dujany For the real-time alignment and calibration of the vertexing and tracking system of the LHCb experiment. Giulio developed the monitoring tools and automatic checks which are mandatory to be able to update automatically, in real-time, the alignment and calibration of the detectors. This led to stable and precise alignment of the detector, allowing to achieve the best possible performances for physics analyses. He also implemented the automatic procedure to verify that the result of the online alignment and calibration are propagated correctly in the offline processing. This guarantees to have the same performance in the trigger and offline reconstruction. - Claudio Gotti For the development of the CLARO chip, the front-end ASIC of the LHCb RICH detector upgrade. Claudio is the main designer of this chip that will be used in the future RICH detector to read out single photons at 40 MHz. He successfully accomplished the highly challenging task to build an extremely low noise chip having low power consumption and capable of tolerating the radiation expected for the RICH upgrade. This was a key element of the success of the RICH upgrade design. - Lucia Grillo For the development and operation of the online real-time calibration and alignment of the LHCb tracking system. Lucia proposed, developed and commissioned the real-time calibration of the tracking stations of the LHCb experiment, maintaining a strong link between the online system where the calibration is performed and trigger system where it is used. This is now part of the daily running of the LHCb experiment, and is a crucial step towards the operation mode foreseen for the LHCb detector upgrade. - Renato Quagliani For the development of a new seeding algorithm for the tracking software of the LHCb detector upgrade. Renato wrote a new standalone track reconstruction algorithm for the scintillating fibre tracker, improving the performances of the track reconstruction under the running conditions foreseen for the LHCb upgrade, where the particle multiplicity will be high. This algorithm shows a large gain in efficiency to find low momentum tracks, a large reduction of fake track rate and a faster execution time. Furthermore, he strongly contributed to the migration of the tracking software to the new computing framework currently in preparation for the upgrade. This is an essential element to study the trigger performance for the upgrade. |
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On September 15 2016, the LHCb collaboration awarded the first set of prizes for outstanding contributions of early career scientists. Twenty-five nominations were submitted and considered by a committee formed of Patrick Koppenburg (chair), Rolf Lindner (technical coordinator), Monica Pepe-Altarelli (deputy spokesperson), Stefan Roiser (computing coordinator), Barbara Storaci (operations coordinator) and Vincenzo Vagnoni (physics coordinator). The choice was made particularly difficult due to the high quality of all nominees. Also, as it was the first time these prizes were awarded, the considered period of the work to be rewarded had to be defined. The committee decided to consider work that had a significant impact within the last year. |
| - The HLT Team: Roel
Aaij, Sean Benson, Conor Fitzpatrick, Rosen Matev and Sascha
Stahl For having implemented and commissioned the revolutionary changes to the LHC Run-2 high-level-trigger (HLT), including the first widespread deployment of real-time analysis techniques in High Energy Physics. These allow for offline quality selections to be deployed in the HLT, leading to a significant increase of the data yields at constant data volumes, and a better use of CPU resources. The offline quality of the trigger output data (Turbo stream) allows for fast analysis without further offline processing, as shown in the first 13 TeV cross-section measurements. Together the five awardees have been responsible for almost all the technical aspects of the HLT, including the implementation and commissioning of the Turbo stream, the commissioning of the offline reconstruction in the HLT, the implementation and commissioning of the luminosity and fixed-target physics triggers, the implementation of the HLT in simulation, and the overall maintenance of the HLT software infrastructure and monitoring. - The Starterkit initiators: Kevin Dungs and Tim Head For having launched the Starterkit initiative, a new style of software tutorials based on modern programming methods. “Starterkit is a group of physicists who want to improve the working lives of young researchers working on the LHCb experiment” (https://lhcb.github.io/starterkit/). Kevin and Tim have developed the idea, convinced enthusiastic young colleagues to join the effort and set up a first – very successful – tutorial in 2015. Tutees are encouraged to become tutors in the next iteration of the workshop, and indeed now the third generation is preparing for the next tutorial. This project has successfully replaced the old tutorials designed top-down by experts. It allowed many new and not-so-new LHCb members to understand the LHCb software. - Manuel Schiller For speed improvements in the tracking of LHCb, enabling the full event reconstruction in the HLT. Manuel used advanced numerical methods to provide mathematical tools (optimised for SIMD processor architectures) that speed up the tracking by large factors, and can be used elsewhere in the LHCb software. Manuel has also studied and solved another important numerical issue in the LHCb software related to the precision of packing and unpacking of covariance matrices. - Claire Prouvé For the development of the automated RICH mirror alignment within the Online framework. Claire's work has ultimately led to RICH mirror alignment taking 20mins to complete, and being able to be run each fill, compared to many days which it took before, offline. In turn this will allow the RICH group to study the stability and reproducibility of the alignment to a degree not possible before. - Paolo Durante For the development of the software and firmware of the PCIe40 board, the corner-stone of the LHCb upgrade. In close collaboration with the engineering teams, he managed the extremely challenging task to get sustained speed out of the FPGA interfaces towards the host PC, which practically are at the physically possible line-rate. He wrote the firmware and the Linux driver to go with it. He demonstrated also the feasibility to do this without the help of a rather expensive auxiliary chip. Paolo's contributions were crucial to demonstrate the overall superiority of the PCIe40 based-architecture over the original approach. This made the LHCb upgrade technically possible, with a solution that is significantly less expensive than the original plan. |
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| The explanation of the prize and the nomination procedures are explained on this web site: Early career scientist awards | |