Session A1: Prize Session

Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics Winner: Probing Dynamics and Structure from Within with VUV and Ultrafast X-rays

VUV and X-rays produced at synchrotron facilities or free electron lasers (FELs) have energies and intensities sufficient to access core and inner-shell electrons producing, unlike visible optical lasers, inside-out photoionization to probe matter. The element-specificity of x-ray absorption, i.e., the ability to target specific atoms within molecules and select specific shells in those atoms (by tuning with high resolution the photon energy to specific spectral regions) has been used to investigate the dynamics and structure of atoms, molecules, clusters and their ions. The new class of x-ray lasers, the intense-femtosecond FELs, has opened up new opportunities to study AMO physics with atomic spatial resolution and femtosecond temporal resolution. The understanding of physical and chemical changes at an atomic spatial scale and on the time scale of atomic motion is crucial not only for AMO physics but also for a broad range of other scientific fields. We will report on experimental investigations coupled with a quantitative understanding of dynamical effects due to VUV or x-ray exposure. We will also describe newly-built instrumentation already applied to x-ray pump-x-ray probe experiments to map out time-dependent processes to interrogate molecular dynamics in order to advance our fundamental understanding of the interaction of matter with x-rays.   

Will Allis Prize for the Study of Ionized Gases Winner: Low Temperature Plasma-Surface Interactions: From Computer Chips to Cancer Therapy

Low temperature plasmas (LTPs) are virtually always bounded by surfaces and the nature of the interaction often dominates the plasma physics, chemistry and applications. In this talk, I will present an overview of low temperature plasma-surface interactions with an emphasis on what has been learned during the last several decades. The remarkable evolution of low pressure LTP etching technology and more recent developments in biomedical applications of atmospheric pressure LTP will serve as key examples.   

Maria Goeppert Mayer Award Winner: New frontiers in quantum simulation enabled by precision laser spectroscopy

Ultracold atomic systems have been proposed as ideal quantum simulators of real materials. Major breakthroughs have been achieved using neutral alkali atoms (one-outer-electron atoms) but their inherent ``simplicity'' introduces important limitations on the physics that can be investigated with them. Systems with more complex interactions and with richer internal structure offer an excellent platform for the exploration of a wider range of many-body phenomena. I will discuss our recent progress on the use of polar molecules, alkaline earth atoms --currently the basis of the most precise atomic clock in the world--, and trapped ions, as quantum simulators of iconic condensed matter Hamiltonians as well as Hamiltonians without solid state analogs. A promising direction under current exploration is the many-body physics that emerges at warmer temperatures (above quantum degeneracy) when there is a decoupling between motional and internal degrees of freedom. Even though in this regime the interaction energy scales can be small ($\sim$ Hz), they can be resolved thanks to the unprecedented level of control offered by modern precision laser spectroscopy.