John Dawson Thesis Prize
The John Dawson Thesis prize is awarded on a biannual basis to the best PhD thesis in the area of plasma accelerators driven by laser and/or particle beams. The prize will be awarded for fundamental (theoretical and/or experimental) and/or for applied aspects.
Each prize winner will receive a certificate of merit, a prize money and financial support (up to 1000 dollars in total) to attend the “Laser and Plasma Accelerators Workshop -2027” where the prize will be awarded.
Thesis prizes will be awarded to PhD students who defended their thesis in the period covering 2025-2026. The prizes will be distributed at the Poovar Island Resorts in Trivandrum, Kerala, India where the LPAW-2027 will be held.
The candidates need to be nominated by one of the PhD thesis examiners and/or by the supervisor. The nominated student's supervisor must send
- a one-page CV of the candidate
- a short summary of the achievements of the nominated thesis
- a list of publications
- two letters of recommendation
- a few sentences explaining the reasons why the thesis is particularly deserving the JD thesis prize.
All these documents must be sent on a single pdf document. Incomplete nominations will not be considered.
All nominations must be sent on a single pdf document to the John Dawson Thesis Prize Committee before November 15, 2026 in the email address: john.dawson_prize@lpaw27.tecnico.ulisboa.pt
The 2027 John Dawson Thesis Prize Committee members are: C. Joshi (ULCA), G. R. Kumar (TIFR), W. Lu (TU), V. Malka (WIS), Z. Najmudin (IC), U. Schramm (HZDR), C. Schroeder (LBNL), and L. Silva (IST).