Canadian Light Source Inc.

G. Michael Bancroft Ph.D. Thesis Award

The Canadian Light Source (CLS) places a high value on student training. The facility offers an ideal environment for graduate students to have access to world-class facilities, and to interact with scientific colleagues from around the globe. Many are expected to become the scientific leaders of tomorrow.

G. Michael ‘Mike’ Bancroft was the Scientific Director of the Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility (CSRF) in Madison, WI from 1978-1999, and Executive Director and Director of Research of the CLS from 1999-2001 and 2000-2004, respectively, during the crucial development years of the facility. He is widely acknowledged as the driving force behind the creation of Canada’s national synchrotron facility. He received the CIC Montreal Medal in 2002, was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003 and is currently Professor Emeritus at The University of Western Ontario.

Award:

The award consists of a plaque and a cash prize of $3000. Each year, the CLS will present the G. Michael Bancroft Ph.D. Thesis Award to the Ph.D. thesis judged to be the best published in the last calendar year. The award will be presented at the Annual Users’ Meeting.

Eligibility Criteria:

To be eligible for the award, you must:

Be registered as a CLS user
Complete a Ph.D. thesis in 2011. The copyright date on the thesis will be used to determine the year of eligibility.
Have obtained data using one or several CLS beamlines. Please include the following Acknowledgement when submitting or presenting results from the CLS:

“The research described in this paper was performed at the Canadian Light Source, which is supported by NSERC, NRC, CIHR, and the University of Saskatchewan.”

Procedure:

Applications will be accepted either from the candidate or their supervisor. Please forward the following material to BancroftAward@lightsource.ca.

A letter from the candidate (maximum 2 pages) addressing the evaluation criteria listed below.
A copy of the thesis. This could be an attachment to an email (usually in pdf format), or a mailed copy (on a disc, or in paper format). Electronic versions are preferred.
A letter of recommendation from the thesis supervisor or another qualified colleague (maximum 2 pages) commenting on the specific role the candidate played in the work, and the impact of the work.
A copy of the candidate’s CV.

Deadline:

All material must be received at the CLS by March 1, 2012.

Review Criteria:

All theses will be evaluated by a Review Committee, using the following three criteria:

The quality of the scientific research within the context of the field.
The importance of synchrotron radiation from the CLS for answering the scientific questions posed.
The quality and capability of the candidate based on their CV and the letter of recommendation.