John Dawson Thesis Prize
The John Dawson Thesis Prize is awarded every two years for the best PhD thesis on plasma accelerators driven by lasers and/or particle beams. Theses on fundamental (theoretical or experimental) and applied work are both eligible.
Eligibility: PhD theses defended in 2025 or 2026.
The prize: a certificate, prize money, and up to US$1,000 in total towards attending LPAW 2027. The prize will be presented at the workshop at the Poovar Island Resort, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
How to nominate: The candidate must be nominated by their supervisor or by one of the thesis examiners. Please send a single PDF with:
- a one-page CV of the candidate
- a short summary of the thesis and what it achieved
- a list of publications
- two letters of recommendation
- a few sentences on why the thesis deserves the prize
Email it to john.dawson_prize@lpaw27.tecnico.ulisboa.pt by 15 November 2026. Incomplete nominations will not be considered.
Prize committee: C. Joshi (UCLA), G. R. Kumar (TIFR), W. Lu (TU), V. Malka (WIS), Z. Najmudin (IC), U. Schramm (HZDR), C. Schroeder (LBNL), L. Silva (IST).
Student and Early Career Grants
We will offer a few grants to help students and early-career researchers in laser-plasma acceleration and related fields attend LPAW 2027. The grant covers the registration fee.
Eligibility: current PhD students, and early-career researchers who submitted their thesis on or after 1 January 2026. You must have pre-registered for LPAW 2027.
How to apply: Fill in the Student Grant application form by 10 November 2026, and upload:
- your CV with a publication list
- a signed cover letter
Conditions:
- You must attend the whole workshop and present your work, as a poster or as a talk if selected. You must also upload your abstract to Indico.
- You must upload an open-access PDF of your poster or talk to the workshop’s Indico page. You may leave out confidential material. We will share details of the poster format later.
Registration for grant and prize applicants
Please register as soon as possible, ideally by the early bird deadline of 30 November. Don’t wait for the results: we aim to decide before registration closes, but we can’t guarantee it. If you receive a student grant, we will refund your registration fee. John Dawson Thesis Prize winners will receive up to US$1,000 towards their attendance.