“Patrick Heighway deserves the prestigious prize for his pivotal role in measuring X-ray diffraction at extreme pressures and temperatures at the HED-HiBEF Instrument”, says Emma McBride from Queen’s University, Belfast and chairperson of the User Organization Executive Committee (UOEC).
His work combines experimental data with molecular dynamics simulations to provide critical insight into the nature of release pathways of shock compressed materials, kinematics of plasticity, and the fundamental interaction of grains in compressed polycrystalline materials. This work is important for many different fields, including geophysics, fundamental material science, shock and plasma physics, the search for novel materials, and understanding pathways to fusion energy.
The European XFEL Young Scientist Award recognises young researchers who are at the beginning of their career but are already making outstanding contributions to research at the European XFEL.
The winner will receive a monetary award of 2,000 Euro and was invited to give a talk as part of the plenary session of the European XFEL User Meeting on 21 January 2025 in Hamburg.
For the first time, the European XFEL User Organization Executive Committee awards as well prizes to posters presented this year at the European XFEL Users’ Meeting about exciting research performed with radiation from European XFEL. Poster prizes were awarded to Daniele Ronchetti (CFEL), Calum Prestwood and Carolina Camarda (both European XFEL).
Their topics were “Elastic scattering enhancement via transient resonances” (Ronchetti), “Tracking atomic populations and transitions in x-ray heated mid-Z transition metals” (Prestwood), and “Electronic properties of Ferropericlase (Mg,Fe)O obtained from dynamic compression experiments using DiPOLE100-X at European XFEL” (Camarda).
Read more on European XFEL website
