2025 Director’s Awards for Lifetime Achievement
Lifetime Achievement: Kevin Einsweiler
Citation: For achievements in collider physics at the LHC, Tevatron, SSC, and CERN Spbar-pS. These comprise physics analysis, instrumentation, and leadership, as well as major breakthroughs, measurements, and innovations, including the Higgs Boson, the W-Mass, pixel detectors, and numerous tests of the Standard Model.
2025 Director’s Awards for Exceptional Achievement
Community Building: Dilworth Parkinson
Citation: For consistent and significant efforts to shape a culture of the Advanced Light Source that is marked by enthusiastic collaboration and the Lab’s stewardship values.
Early Scientific Career: Jose Luis Rudeiros Fernández
Citation: For outstanding innovations in superconducting magnets, including the “Uni-Layer” concept, a paradigm-shifting design for high-temperature superconductors; advances in fabrication processes that eliminate training quenches; and rising to the challenges of a new joint high-energy-physics and fusion-energy test facility.
Early Scientific Career: Kateryna Zhalnina
Citation: For advancing methods to interrogate plant-microbe metabolic exchanges and demonstrating the role of plant root exudation in assembling and controlling rhizosphere microbiome composition and function.
Early Scientific Career: Marco Pritoni
Citation: For advancing smart building interoperability by developing semantic models, driving the adoption of ASHRAE Standard 223, and leading international collaborations. Dr. Pritoni’s work enables scalable energy solutions, enabling broad load flexibility, and fosters industry partnerships.
Early Scientific Career: Michelle Newcomer
Citation: For exceptional early career contributions, and for becoming a recognized thought leader who bridges the fields of hydrology, ecology, and biogeochemistry to advance multi-scale understanding of watershed hydrobiogeochemical resilience.
Early Scientific Career: Timon Heim
Citation: For his pivotal role in developing the next generation semiconductor detector technology, data acquisition software, and system integration for the ATLAS high luminosity upgrade at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, along with multiple other applications, and the mentorship of numerous younger colleagues.
Mentorship: Jonelle Tamara Basso
Citation: For exemplary mentorship, dedicated advocacy for diversity, impactful professional development of early-career scientists, and proactive leadership in fostering collaborative scientific communities and operational excellence at LBNL.
Mentorship: William Riley
Citation: For his hands-on mentorship approach that emphasized fostering independence and employee growth, which guided over 40 early career scientists. In addition, Dr. Riley’s commitment to scientific excellence and supportive leadership has elevated Berkeley Lab’s reputation for ecosystem modeling.
Organizational Impact: Kjiersten Fagnan
Citation: For extraordinary efforts in breaking down cross-organizational barriers, creating computational and data-sharing efficiencies, integrating and maximizing the value of diverse resources, and bringing Department of Energy infrastructure into a new era of “big data” and Artificial Intelligence in biological research.
Organizational Impact: Laleh Coté
Citation: For leveraging her expertise in educational research and program management and building partnerships across the Lab to develop, implement, and evaluate activities that engage interns, help to attract new talent to the Lab, and encourage program alumni to consider LBNL as a future employer.
Organizational Impact: National Lab Research SLAM – Clarissa Bhargava, Faith Dukes, Kevin Gifford-Tinker, Laurel Kellner, Linda Louie, Jonathan Nurse, Justin Placencia, Meg Rodriguez, Marilyn Sargent.
Citation: For elevating a local science “SLAM” initiative to the national level through innovative programming, strategic growth, and dedication to making science accessible to diverse audiences from around the country and beyond.
Organizational Impact: Rangineh Bassir
Citation: For her successful efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care, prioritize wellness and safety for all employees, and enhance the Lab’s reputation through strategic partnerships and accreditation. Rangineh’s work has transformed Health Services and demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to the Lab’s mission.
Outreach: Harrison Lisabeth
Citation: For exceptional contributions to outreach that have transformed student trajectories and advanced Berkeley Lab’s mission through personal leadership, mentorship, and engagement.
Scientific: BELLA Center 10-GeV Core Team – Carlo Benedetti, Eric Esarey, Cameron Geddes, Anthony Gonsalves, Raymond Li, Kei Nakamura, Alexander Picksley, Carl Schroeder, Joshua Stackhouse, Hai-En Tsai, Jeroen van Tilborg.
Citation: For pioneering and innovative work demonstrating high-quality 10-GeV laser-plasma acceleration at the BELLA Petawatt Facility — a milestone toward a compact, cost-effective next-generation high energy collider and applications benefitting the DOE and Berkeley Lab missions.
Scientific: Emory Chan and Bruce Cohen
Citation: For the discovery and development of Avalanching Nanoparticles, a new material with remarkable properties and far-ranging applications from nanoscale imaging to information science.
Scientific: Graham Fleming
Citation: For developing advanced multidimensional and ultrafast spectroscopy and applying it to study light-matter interactions in photosynthetic and photocatalytic systems. He has dramatically expanded biophysical sciences at LBNL, and demonstrated the importance of quantum coherence in biology.
Scientific: GRETA Project Team – Collin Anderson, Jeffrey Bramble, Eric Buice, Chris Campbell, Heather Crawford, Mario Cromaz, Eli Dart, Jennifer Doyle, Paul Fallon, Tynan Ford, Tin Ho, Eric Pouyoul, Thorsten Stelzenberger, Vamsi Vytla, Li Wang
Citation: For delivering the project scope for the Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking Array (GRETA), a next generation microscope into the quantum world of atomic nuclei at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, on time and on budget with fully demonstrated performance.
Societal Impact: Data Center Analysis Team – Billie Holecek, Nuoa Lei, Eric Masanet, Alex Newkirk, Alex Hubbard, Arman Shehabi, Dale Sartor, Sarah Smith
Citation: For delivering a landmark assessment of nation-wide data center energy use, directly informing federal action, shaping public discourse, and establishing Berkeley Lab as the authoritative source for science-based insight on one of today’s most urgent energy challenges.
Societal Impact: EMIS Research Team – Armando Casillas, Stacy Curry, Eliot Crowe, Reva Deshpande, Sam Fernandes, Jessica Granderson, Nora Hart, Nathan McKenzie, Ashleigh Papakyriakou
Citation: For steering and piloting energy management and information system (EMIS) analytics from what was in the early 2000s a raw, unproven emerging technology, to a widely adopted tool to deliver significant energy and cost savings for large commercial building owners.
Tech Transfer: Cradle to Commerce (C2C) Team – Vidhi Bhatia, Ruby Barcklay, Bonnie Cobiseno, Yashima Jain, Shanshan Li, Reshma Singh, Laura Wong, Ingrid Xhafa, Wenshuang Zhang
Citation: For building and executing an unprecedented, multi-lab, public-private incubator to accelerate the technology transfer and commercialization of innovative national lab technologies, positioning Berkeley Lab at the forefront of the national labs’ commercialization efforts.
Tech Transfer: Modelica Team – David Blum, Milica Grahovac, Jianjun Hu, Ettore Zanetti, Michael Wetter
Citation: For advancing equation-based modeling, forming a community of developers and users, and creating a library with 3000 validated models that is used world-wide to design and operate HVAC equipment and energy and control systems for data centers, buildings, and districts.
