The User Organisation invites nominations for the 2026 Young Scientist Award. The 31st edition of this traditional prize will be awarded during the User Meeting on 2 - 4 February 2026, and carries prize money of 2 000 Euros as well as the production by a professional company of a short promotional video about the winner and his/her research.
 

Conditions for nomination

  • The nominee can be of any nationality
  • Date of completion of PhD must be within 1 Feb. 2019 and 1 Feb. 2023
  • Birth date must be after 1/01/1989
  • Exemptions to the eligibility criteria on PhD completion date or birth date (e.g. pregnancy, sick leave, etc.) follow the rules set for the ERC Starting grant call
  • Relevant research must have been carried out at the ESRF

The selected candidate will be requested to give a talk at the plenary session of the User Meeting on Tuesday, February 3. Further details on the rules for nominations can be found here.

Nominations should be sent by e-mail at this address.
 

Nominations should include

  1. One letter of recommendation explaining why the nominee merits the prize
     
  2. A Curriculum Vitae of the nominee, containing personal details, career developments, and highlighting invited and contributed talks, seminars and awarded grants, if applicable, 2 pages maximum.
     
  3. A complete list of publications.
     
  4. Five selected publications: Candidates are requested to identify 5 publications that best represent their research at the ESRF, to list them at top of the CV or of the list of publications and to send them in PDF format.
     
  5. Academic referees (with their contact details, four maximum) who can be contacted for further reference if necessary.
     

Deadline

DEADLINE to send nominations is
Tuesday 4th November 2025

Nominees over the age-limit, or nominations received after the deadline will NOT be accepted.

The nominations will be judged by an international committee of prominent synchrotron radiation scientists. The list of nominees is confidential and only the award-winner will be notified mid-December 2025.


Tilman Grunewald
Chairperson of the User Organisation Committee

Meeting Secretariat
usermeet@esrf.fr

ESRF User Office
CS 40220
71 avenue des Martyrs
38043 GRENOBLE Cedex 9, France.