INTRODUCTION
The ICIS Brightness Award, first awarded in 2003, and supported until 2013 by Bergoz Instrumentation, recognizes and encourages innovative significant achievements in ion source physics and technology. It has become a prestigious award in the ion source community, honouring recipients for important contributions to our field.
Since 2015, the continuing sponsor for the Brightness Award has been be the Lanzhou Kejin Taiji New Technology Co., Ltd.
We are grateful to the Taiji Corporation for this generous sponsorship, and to Hongwei Zhao of the Institute of Modern Physics, Lanzhou, China, for enabling this connection.
The Kejin Taiji Co., closely associated with the Institute of Modern Physics in Lanzhou, China and specialized in manufacture of accelerator components, including ion sources, RFQs, magnet and accelerator systems, and is developing and marketing a full carbon ion radiotherapy system.
PURPOSE
The Ion Source Prize, named the “Brightness Award” is intended to recognize and encourage innovative and significant achievements in the fields of ion source physics and technology. While recent accomplishments are favoured, the Committee may consider an accumulation of outstanding accomplishments by an individual that meet the criteria outlined below as being worthy of the Prize.
AWARD
The prize consists of US$3000, to be presented at the ICIS 2025 International Conference on Ion Sources, hosted by STFC. The selection of the recipient(s) is made by the ICIS 2025 International Advisory Committee.
AWARD CRITERIA
The Ion Source Prize will be presented for an outstanding contribution to the fields of ion source physics and technology. This contribution could be a breakthrough idea, understanding or design that leads to an ion source, or could be the ion source itself. The ion source resulting from this contribution must demonstrate significantly improved levels of performance over the current state-of-the-art. The contribution must have been published and must be available to the community for application.
CRITERIA INTERPRETATION
Ion Source:
Definition: A device producing a beam of charged particles (protons or heavier) suitable for transport to an experimental setup (e.g. atomic-, surface- or cluster physics), or to an application, such as accelerator injection, ion implantation, fusion driver, ion propulsion, etc. Critical element is formation of a beam, rather than simply plasma generation.
Demonstrated Performance:
The contribution selected must have led to the production of an actual, operating ion source (or must be the source itself). The contribution can be theoretical or experimental. However, in case of theoretical contributions, an experimental demonstration of the validity of the theory must have been done with production of a beam of sufficient quality to obtain quantitative measurements of its characteristics. The performance characteristics must be recognized and evaluated by the IAC as a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art.
Publication:
The contribution should have been published in journals or in proceedings of conferences that are in the public domain. Primary supporting publications should have been published within the past 7 years. Laboratory design notes, internal technical notes, or other written material do not qualify as primary references but may be submitted to support other publications. Full and open disclosure is necessary to the extent that a potential user could clearly make use of the concept or source design for which the award is given.
ELIGIBILITY
Nominations are open to candidates of the Ion Source Community worldwide. The award may be shared between (a maximum of three) researchers contributing to the same accomplishment. A nomination that was not selected for receiving the Award in a previous round can be updated and resubmitted for the present round, provided it complies with the Rules established for this round of the competition.
DISCLOSURE
The Prize Administrators may release the names of entrants and a list of publications related to an entry if requested by a third party. Unpublished supporting material will not be disclosed nor will the names of persons supporting a nomination. Discussion regarding individual entries, scoring, etc. is regarded as confidential and will not be disclosed.
NOMINATION AND SELECTION PROCESS
The nomination process will be conducted in two phases. A Preliminary Nomination can be submitted by any member of the Ion Source Community to the Prize Administrator, who will forward these to the International Advisory Committee (IAC) for evaluation. The IAC will select from the Preliminary Nominations a slate of two or three candidates, and invite the nominator of the candidate to see to the preparation of a Full Nomination Package.
The selection of the winning candidate will be made by the IAC, in a process conducted via video conference, managed by the Prize Administrator.
Preliminary Nomination:
The Preliminary Nomination shall consist of a one- or at most two-page document that makes the case for why this Nominee should receive the Award. It should include references to recent publications of the Nominee.
The Preliminary Nomination can be submitted as an e-mail message, or as a .pdf attachment to an e-mail message, sent to the Prize Administrator: Oliver Kester okester@triumf.ca
Full Nomination Package:
The Full Nomination package must be submitted by a professional (physicist, engineer or management person) familiar with the candidate(s) and his/her/their contribution and can speak to the significance of the contribution. Every nomination must have a Sponsor who is a member of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) or the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) for this Conference cycle.
The nomination package shall include:
- A cover page including the name, title and affiliation of the candidate(s), a short title of the contribution for which the award is sought, and the list of relevant publications. Include on this page the name and contact information for both the Submitter of the nomination, and the IAC/SPC Sponsor.
- A statement, signed by the Submitter, describing the contribution of the Nominee to the physics or technology of the field.
- Full copies of relevant publications that have appeared in journals or widely-available conference proceedings. Note: Contributions to the present conference cannot serve as primary sources, as these proceedings have not yet been refereed or published.
- A signed statement of support by the Sponsor from IAC or SPC. (The statement is not necessary if the Sponsor is the Submitter.)
NOTE: All documents must be submitted in English, and only electronic submission will be accepted. The package must include all of the items listed above, including scans of the Submitter and Sponsor letters with signatures. Submitter must be available to work with the Prize Administrator to solve any formatting and transmission problems. Documents must be in *.pdf format.
Document files, or URL of download site, should be sent to Oliver Kester okester@triumf.ca
DEADLINES:
Preliminary Nomination:
Deadline for submission of Preliminary Nominations is May 16th, 2025
Notification of acceptance and invitation to submit Full Nomination Package will be made by May 30th, 2025
Full Nomination Package:
Deadline for submission of Full Nomination Packages is June 30th, 2025
