sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[David Morrison <morrison AT bnl.gov>]

Dear Collaborators,

The inaugural RHIC/AGS Users' Executive Committee Merit Awards were
announced yesterday - well-deserved recognition of outstanding research
employing the current (and future!) capabilities of the RHIC complex by
scientists in their first decade post-Ph.D..  I've included the full
list of awardees below.  A quick read through the award citations makes
clear the varied nature and high level of accomplishment met by all the
winners.  Congratulations to all!

Particular congratulations to our fellow sPHENIX collaborators Haiwang
Yu and Cesar da Silva who both received awards!

Cheers,
Dave and Gunther

2018 RHIC/AGS Merit Award Recipients
====================================

Takeshi Kanesue:

for his indispensable contributions to enhance the performance of the
EBIS pre-injector for successful operation for NSRL and RHIC.

Rosalin Goss:

for her important thesis research into proton and iron ion-induced
chromosome aberrations and the implications for the long-term health of
astronauts.

Matthew Sievert:

for his important contributions to the physics of spin as probed at RHIC
and future accelerators.

Jonah Bernhard:

for his exceptional contributions to the data-driven determination of
the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma by means of Bayesian techniques.

Cesar Luiz Da Silva:

for his intellectual leadership and exceptional contributions to the
software, electronics and detector development, as well as key heavy
flavor results with the PHENIX experiment.

Haiwang Yu:

for his outstanding contributions in extracting double-spin asymmetry in
inclusive J/Psi production with the PHENIX experiment and software
development for the sPHENIX experiment.

Minjung Kim:

for her indispensable contributions to the single spin asymmetry
measurements in PHENIX, especially of very forward neutrons.

Isaac Upsal:    

for his indispensable contributions in the successful commissioning of
the Event Plane Detector Upgrade for the STAR experiment and for his
pioneering work which led to the first observation of global
polarization in heavy ion collisions.

James Dranchenberg:

for his exceptional contributions in measurements of di-hadron
asymmetries from polarized pp collisions with STAR and his invaluable
leadership in the roles of STAR deputy spokesperson and PWG convener.

Xiaofeng Luo:

for his seminal contributions to the beam energy scan program at RHIC
via first measurements of higher moments of net hadron distributions
with the STAR experiment.

Takafumi Niida:

for his indispensable contributions to the measurements of local and
global polarization and for his measurements of directed flow with
differential femtoscopic techniques in heavy ion collisions with the
PHENIX and STAR experiments.

-- 
David Morrison  Brookhaven National Laboratory  phone: 631-344-5840
                Physics Department, Bldg 510 C    fax: 631-344-3253
                          Upton, NY 11973-5000  email: dave AT bnl.gov