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NIST Researchers Honored with Presidential Award

NIST's Associate Director for Laboratory Programs Willie May with NIST PECASE winners Joseph Kline, Ana Maria Rey and Gretchen Campbell

NIST's Associate Director for Laboratory Programs Willie May joined NIST PECASE winners Joseph Kline, Ana Maria Rey and Gretchen Campbell (L-R) at a breakfast before the White House ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Credit: NIST

Three National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers were among those honored April 14, 2014, at a White House reception as winners of Presidential Early Career Awards. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Gretchen Campbell, a Fellow of the NIST/University of Maryland Joint Quantum Institute, was recognized for pioneering research in "atomtronics" that proved the feasibility of technological applications in this new field by demonstrating the first controllable atom circuit, and for mentoring young scientists through coursework, laboratory research and sponsorship of a women-in-physics group.

Joseph Kline, a materials scientist in NIST's Material Measurement Laboratory, was recognized for pioneering the use of grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction for the characterization of molecular factors critical to the performance of organic electronics; mentoring a new generation of scientists in this field; and building collaborations across NIST and with industry.

Ana Maria Rey, a physicist and associate researcher in the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory and Fellow at JILA, a joint research institute of NIST and Colorado University-Boulder, was recognized for advancing theoretical understanding of the complex interactions between atoms and light; guiding and explaining experiments involving ultracold atoms and molecules, quantum information processing, atomic clocks, and quantum magnetism; and outstanding mentoring of young scientists.

For more information on the awards and a full list of the 102 winners, see the December news release from the White House and the Office of Science and Technology Policy's blog.

Released April 15, 2014, Updated September 7, 2023