During this year’s convention of the FAIR-GSI Exotic Nuclei Community (GENCO) in the framework of the NUSTAR annual meeting, the presentation of the Young Scientist Award as well as the admission of one new member took place. The FAIR-GENCO Young Scientist Award went to Dr. Jonas Karthein of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. On the occasion of the award presentation a special colloquium with the title “New Horizons: ab initio exploration of exotic and heavy nuclei” was held by Dr. Jason Holt, scientist at the Canadian accelerator center TRIUMF.

Karthein received the award for applying the superior phase-imaging ion cyclotron resonance technique to short-lived nuclides, reaching relative uncertainties of 10-9, its application to neutrino-less double beta decay, and for pursuing new applications using radioactive molecules. The Young Scientist Award is bestowed annually by GENCO to outstanding young researchers working in the field of experimental or theoretical nuclear physics. The winners are selected by an international jury. 

Additionally, the GENCO community honored Dr. Emma Haettner of GSI/FAIR with a Membership Award for having a decisive role in recent improvements of the Fragment Separator FRS for experiments and for the development of the new medical-physics program using radioactive beams for improved PET imaging.