G. Michael Bancroft PhD and Masters Thesis Awards

The CLS places a high value on student training. Our facility offers graduate students access to world-class facilities, and the opportunity to interact with scientific colleagues from around the globe. Many of these students 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:

Each year, the CLS will present the G. Michael Bancroft PhD Thesis Award to the PhD thesis judged to be the best published in the last calendar year and (new in 2019, onward) the G. Michael Bancroft Masters Thesis Award to the Masters thesis judged to be the best published in the last calendar year. The PhD award consists of a certificate and a cash prize of $1,000 CAD, plus up to $2,000 CAD for travel expenses (if applicable) to a conference of their choice (pre-approved by the CLS).  The Masters award consists of a certificate and a cash prize of $500 CAD.

Eligibility Criteria:

To be eligible for the award, you must:

• Be registered as a CLS user
• Completed a PhD or Masters thesis in the relevant award year. 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: 

“Part or all of the research described in this paper was performed at the Canadian Light Source, a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan, which is supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the National Research Council (NRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Government of Saskatchewan, and the University of Saskatchewan.”

Procedure:

Applications will be accepted either from the candidate or their supervisor.  Please forward the following application material to awards@lightsource.ca with either Bancroft Award (PhD) or Bancroft Award (Masters) in the subject line during the official call for nominations.

• 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:

The CLS is accepting nominations for 2020 until midnight on Friday, May 14, 2021.

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.

Previous Recipients of this Award:

2019 PhD Thesis - Nazanin Samadi, University of Saskatchewan

2019 Masters Thesis - No nominations were recieved for this award

2018 - (Joint) Brett Leedahl, University of Saskatchewan; Janice Reimer, McGill University

2017 - Jongmin Lee, University of Toronto

2016 - Neil Johnson, University of Saskatchewan

2015 – Andrew Achkar, University of Waterloo
2014 – Michelle (Tonkin) Parker, University of British Columbia
2013 – Riccardo Comin, University of British Columbia
2012 – Lijia Liu, Western University 
2011 – Arathi Padmanabhan, University of Windsor
2010 – Adam Gillespie, University of Saskatchewan
2009 – Jesse Smith, University of Ottawa
2008 – Edwige Otero, University of Saskatchewan

Back to Awards