William E. Spicer - Thomas N. Casselman Award

Best Student Paper

Every year the U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials (a.k.a. the II-VI Workshop) Committee selects one of the student presentations to receive an award for the best student paper. Prior to 2004, this award was called simply the "Best Student Paper Award." Its goal is to encourage student participation and acknowledge excellence in student paper presentations. The award commemorates William E. Spicer’s and Thomas N. Casselman’s memory and is awarded to the student who, in their opinion, had the best student paper at the Workshop. The recipients are presented with a cash award and a plaque. The plaque will have the student’s name and institution engraved upon it and will be his or hers to keep.

Following the passing of Professor William E. Spicer of Stanford University on June 6, 2004, the II-VI Workshop Committee decided to honor Bill Spicer and recognize his role as a co-founder of this workshop as well as his many contributions to the world of science by renaming the "Best Student Paper Award" as the "William E. Spicer Award." Bill is best known as one of the inventors of modern night vision devices. He developed photoemission spectroscopy and pioneered image-intensification technology.

After the passing of Thomas N. Casselman on August 30, 2010, the Workshop Committee changed the name of this award to the "William E. Spicer - Thomas N. Casselman Award" to recognize Tom’s role as the other co-founder of this workshop and to honor the contributions of Tom Casselman and Bill Spicer. Tom Casselman was a computational solid state physicist, who made important contributions to the fundamental understanding of the physics and chemistry of HgCdTe materials and devices.

William E. Spicer (1929-2004) and Thomas N. Casselman (1933-2010) cofounded the U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of the II-VI Materials in 1981. With the help of their peers from industry, government and academia, the co-founders organized the first workshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, held on October 28-30, 1981. Since 1981, the U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of the II-VI Materials has taken place annually and has attracted both US and foreign attendees from industry, government agencies and academia. The workshop proceedings are rigorously peer-reviewed. The proceedings of the workshops from 1981-1991 have been published in special issues of Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. The proceedings of the workshops since 1992 are published in special issues of the Journal of Electronic Materials (JEM).

The recipients of this award are now working in various government agencies, industrial laboratories and academic institutions. The list below gives the recipients of this distinguished award from 2004 until present day.

References:

1. "The William E. Spicer - Thomas N. Casselman Award for Best Student Paper," Marion B. Reine, Journal of Electronic Materials, 2011, Volume 40, Number 8, Pages 1615-1617
2. "Foreword and the History of the US Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of HgCdTe (Now the II-VI Workshop)," S. Sivananthan, N. K. Dhar, Y. Anter and T. N. Casselman, Journal of Electronic Materials, 2010, Volume 39, Number 7, Pages 831-836
3. "Spicer Award Foreword," Thomas N. Casselman, Journal of Electronic Materials, 2005, Volume 34, Number 6, Page 682