Dr. Philip Adsley, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and a member of the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University, has been recognized with a 2023 United States Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Research Award for his achievements and future potential in experimental nuclear physics and measurements of nuclear systems as relevant to astrophysics.
Adsley, who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2022 and whose research has implications ranging from a better understanding of neutron stars to improved designs of nuclear reactors, is one of 93 scientists nationwide — three total in the state of Texas — selected to receive funding under the DOE Early Career Research Program. The effort, now in its 14th year, is designed to strengthen the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early years of their careers — a critical stage with great impact on a scientist’s later work.
“Supporting America’s scientists and researchers early in their careers will ensure the United States remains at the forefront of scientific discovery,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The funding announced today gives the recipients the resources to find the answers to some of the most complex questions as they establish themselves as experts in their fields.”
Eligible researchers must be untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professors at U.S. academic institutions or full-time employees at DOE national laboratories with a Ph.D. earned within the past 12 years. Their research topics also must fall within the scope of the Department’s Office of Science’s eight major program offices: accelerator research and development and production; advanced scientific computing research; basic energy sciences; biological and environmental research; fusion energy sciences; high energy physics; isotope research and development and production; or nuclear physics.
Adsley was awarded a total of $850,000 over five years by the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Physics for his proposal, “Probing Nuclear Dipole Reactions,” which was selected from a large pool of university- and national laboratory-based applicants through peer review by outside scientific experts. Adsley plans to use sophisticated equipment within the Cyclotron Institute and other research facilities around the world to explore various characteristics of nuclei to determine how much energy it takes to change the composition of nuclear material — an important factor in understanding how all the chemical elements in our universe are made. Such information also will help scientists better understand the related nuclear reactions, thereby enabling them to deduce how components of nuclear matter interact to help refine their ideas about nuclear structure.
“We are very pleased to see the significance of Dr. Adsley’s research recognized with this highly prestigious award,” said Dr. Sherry J. Yennello, Distinguished Professor and Regents Professor of Chemistry and director of the Cyclotron Institute. “We are also excited to see what new research directions he will pursue as his career develops in the future.”
Adsley earned his Ph.D. in nuclear physics at the University of York, UK, in 2013 and completing a series of postdoctoral fellowships at the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Stellenbosch and iThemba LABS in South Africa and at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (IPN) in Orsay, France, prior to coming to Texas A&M.
Learn more about Adsley and his research as well as the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program, including a complete list of current award winners and their abstracts.