Call for Nominations

Every year, PANDA awards a prize for the best PhD thesis in PANDA of the last year and we’d like to ask for nominations for this year's prize. The rules are simple:

Who is eligible?
Members of PANDA who have had the oral defense of their PhD thesis during the year preceding the selection are eligible. The thesis may contain work related to other topics/experiments, but the majority of the work in the thesis must be directly connected to PANDA. The thesis advisor can nominate someone who successfully passed the oral defense during the period from June 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018.

And how can nominations be made?
A nomination can be made until July 31, 2018 by submitting the following information to the speaker of the collaboration:

1. A nomination letter in which the content of the thesis and the importance of this work for PANDA is described. This should also motivate why that thesis should be considered as the best one of the selection period from PANDA.

2. The thesis must be made available online on the PANDA webpage, and the URL must be included in the nomination. If it is not allowed to upload the thesis to the PANDA website, then a hard copy of the thesis must be submitted.

3. If the thesis is not written in English, then a (couple page) summary must be provided in English.

4. A copy of a certificate showing the grade achieved by the thesis (and a short description of the grade scale). This certificate should indicate the date of the oral exam. If that is not the case, then some other confirmation of when the oral exam was held must be provided (a letter for the thesis advisor will suffice, if a copy of a formal document is delivered before the September meeting.)

More details of the PhD Prize rules can be found here.

The nomination must be made in writing/email.

Please keep in mind that potential awardees for the PhD Prize need to be present at the GSI Meeting in November for their PhD presentation. Please consider registration and (if necessary) visa application in time for them.

A list of all laureates of the PANDA PhD Prize is provided on our site.

 Starting in 2018, PANDA will award a prize every two years for the best theory PhD thesis related to the PANDA experimental program and we would like to ask for nominations for this year's prize. The prize will include the award of 200 euro and will be presented at the PANDA Collaboration meeting in June 2018.

All theoreticians who have passed the oral defense of their PhD thesis between Dec 1, 2016 and Nov 30, 2017 are eligible. The thesis may contain work related to other experiments, but the majority of the work in the thesis must be directly connected to the PANDA physics program. The nomination should be made by the thesis advisor.

Read more information and details about nominations.

In 2017 the 1st PANDA Photo Contest took place and the winners in the three categories have been presented during our Collaboration Meeting in Novosibirsk.

If you like you can have a look at a gallery with all contributions.

...and the prize goes to....

Category 1: Detector Photo

"Crystal Test Array" from Dmitry Khaneft & David Rodríguez Piñeiro (both HI Mainz)

shows a test array of Lead-Tungstate crystals for the backward end cap of the PANDA electromagnetic calorimeter.

Feel free to read more about the PANDA electromagnetic calorimeter and its function for the experiment.

Category 2: Fun of Research

"Woman at work“ from Daniel Bonaventura, Universität Münster (c) AG Khoukaz, Institut für Kernphysik, WWU Münster

shows Silke Grieser from Universität Münster working on pumps of the cluster-jet target prototype of the PANDA experiment.

There is more information available about the PANDA target system.

Category 3: Artwork

"STT by Night“ from Jülich Photo Shooting Team, FZ Jülich (c) Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH

shows a model of the Straw Tube Tracker for charged particle tracking in PANDA with interesting lighting.

The STT is an essential part of the PANDA tracking system.