Nominations for 2026 Awards

Nominations are due January 31, 2026, for awards that will be presented at the IEEE NSREC 2026 Conference, July 20-24, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Radiation Effects Award Nominations

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2026 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) Radiation Effects Award. The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals who have had a sustained history of outstanding and innovative technical and/or leadership contributions to the radiation effects community. The $3,000 cash award and plaque will be presented at NSREC in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Forms are available electronically at https://ieee-npss.org/technical-committees/radiation-effects/ and must be submitted by January 31, 2026.  

Radiation Effects Early Achievement Award Nominations

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2026 Radiation Effects Early Achievement Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize an individual early in his or her career whose technical contributions and leadership have had a significant impact on the field of radiation effects.  The $1,500 cash award and plaque will be presented at NSREC San Juan, Puerto Rico. Forms are available electronically at http://ieee-npss.org/technical-committees/radiation-effects/ and must be submitted by January 31, 2026.

Additional information for both awards can be obtained from Laurent Artola, Senior Member-at-Large, ONERA, for the Radiation Effects Steering Group.  Laurent can be reached at [email protected].

Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant Nominations

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2026 Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant. The purpose of the grant is to promote continuing education (attendance at the 2026 NSREC Short Course) and encourage membership in NPSS. Outstanding members of NPSS who are either Student Members, Post-Doctoral Fellows or Research Associates, or unemployed members needing assistance in changing career direction can be nominated for the award. The actual amount of the grant will be determined prior to the 2026 NSREC in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Funds are to be used towards covering travel costs to attend the NSREC Short Course. The grant also provides complimentary short course registration.

Nomination forms are available electronically at http://ieee-npss.org/technical-committees/radiation-effects/ and must be submitted by January 31, 2026. Additional information can be obtained from Justin Likar, Member-at-Large, JHU/APL, for the Radiation Effects Steering Group. Justin can be reached at [email protected]

2025 Phelps Award Winners

The 2024 Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant was awarded to four student members from the radiation effects community. At the opening of the NSREC Conference (July 22, 2025), Kay Chesnut, Chair of the Radiation Effects Steering Group, announced the grant awards. The grants included tuition for the 2025 NSREC Short Course and a check for $1,000.

The purpose of the Phelps Grant is to promote continuing education and encourage membership in the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS). The criteria for judging are exceptional promise as a student, postdoc or research associate in any of the fields of NPSS, or exceptional work in those fields by currently unemployed NPSS members with an expectation that attendance at the Short Course will improve the possibility of obtaining a job in an NPSS field.

The four recipients of the 2025 Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant were Nicholas Pieper, Antoine Salih Alj, Chloe Champagne, and Jake Carpenter.

Jake Carpenter is a Ph.D. student in Intelligent Systems Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington, studying radiation effects and reliability in electronics, with a focus on the design of robust, reliable electronics for spacecraft and satellite technologies. Over the past five years, Jake has conducted extensive proton and heavy-ion single-event effects testing, as well as dose rate testing at flash X-ray and prompt gamma sources. His current focus is on advanced radiation-induced transient detection methodologies in emerging technologies. Inspired by missions like SMAP, Jake aims to bridge cutting-edge research with real-world solutions that benefit both Earth and space.

Nicholas Pieper is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Nick received B.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering in 2021 with a minor in Computer Science, and received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2023. He has completed internships with Northrop Grumman and Intel Corporation. Nick’s graduate research has focused on characterizing single-event upset (SEU), latchup, and total-ionizing dose (TID) vulnerability at the 7-nm, 5-nm, and 3-nm FinFET nodes. He has presented his research at IRPS, NSREC, and RADECS conferences and authored or co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications.

Antoine Salih Alj (Member, IEEE) received the M.S. degree in Applied Physics Engineering from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA), Toulouse, France, in 2021, and the Ph.D. in Microelectronics from Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), Toulouse, France, in 2024. In 2025, he worked as a consultant for the French Space Agency (CNES), focusing on space detectors. He is now working as Associate Professor with the Image Sensor Research Team at ISAE-SUPAERO. His research interests include the design and testing of image sensors for high-end applications, as well as the study of radiation effects.

Chloe Champagne is a PhD student at Vanderbilt University studying radiation effects on microelectronics. Specifically investigating the impacts of radiation on gate-all-around (GAA) transistor architectures under DTRA funding. Chloe has also conducted work expanding statistical TID hardness assurance methodologies for piece part analysis through NASA Goddard funding. Chloe has been passionate about space and space exploration since she was a kid, and she finds the field of radiation effects engineering to be the perfect niche to make an impact. 

Michael Campola, NSREC Vice-Chair of Publicity, can be reached at [email protected].