The Arthur H. Compton award was established in 1995 by the APS Users' Executive Committee (APS UEC) to recognize an important scientific or technical accomplishment at the Advanced Photon Source. The awards are generally made biennially at APS User Meetings, which are held every spring. A call for nominations is sent out before the meeting, and the winner(s) is invited to give an award lecture at the meeting. Awards are not necessarily made each year.

Compton was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927 for discovering and explaining changes in x-ray wavelengths resulting from x-ray collisions with electrons, the so-called Compton effect. This important discovery in 1922 confirmed the dual nature (wave and particle) of electromagnetic radiation. A Ph.D. from Princeton University, Compton held many prominent positions, including professor of physics at The University of Chicago and chairman of the committee of the National Academy of Sciences that studied the military potential of atomic energy. His position on that committee made Compton instrumental in initiating the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb.

The award consists of a $2500 prize, an award plaque, and a name plate on the plaque in the APS Atrium. The recipient of the award is also invited to present a lecture on his/her research in the APS plenary session. A complete nomination packet includes the following:

• Nominator statement (500 words or less) describing why the candidate deserves the award including one DOI number for a publication
• Candidate-written short description of work for which the award is proposed (1000 words or less)
• CV of candidate
• Two letters of support

2021 APS Compton Award Presented to Mark Rivers and Steve Sutton

The Advanced Photon Source Users' Executive Committee (APS UEC) is pleased to announce that Mark Rivers and Stephen Sutton are the winners of the 2021 APSUO Arthur H. Compton Award, which recognizes an important scientific or technical accomplishment at the Advanced Photon Source.

Mark L. Rivers is a Research Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences and Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS) at The University of Chicago, and currently the Executive Director of CARS.

Stephen R. Sutton is also a Research Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences and Center for Advanced Radiation Sources at The University of Chicago, as well as a Research Associate in the Earth Sciences Section of The Field Museum in Chicago.

Together, the two scientists have co-directed the design, construction, and operation of the GeoSoilEnviroCARS (GSECARS) Sector 13 at the Advanced Photon Source, which provides users with high-pressure diffraction and spectroscopy, x-ray microprobe, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and microtomography research techniques.

Rivers and Sutton were nominated for their “sustained efforts over the past three decades [which] have ensured that a national and international community of scientists have access to some of the most advanced x-ray analytical facilities and techniques, enabling thousands of scientists to conduct cutting edge research in geochemistry, cosmochemistry, petrology, mineralogy, and mineral/rock physics for environmental, Earth, and planetary sciences. Collectively, Mark and Steve’s work represents a remarkable contribution that has been an extraordinary benefit to a broad scientific community.

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