84th Physical Electronics Conference

The 84th Physical Electronics Conference, including the prestigious Nottingham Prize Competition for the best presentation based on doctoral research, will be held at the Brookhaven National Lab. This topical conference provides a yearly forum for the dissemination and discussion of novel and fundamental theoretical and experimental research in the physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering of surfaces and interfaces. The conference will begin on the evening of August 11 and conclude on the morning of August 14, 2025.

Nottingham Prize

The Nottingham Prize was originally established in 1966 from contributions given in memory of Professor Wayne B. Nottingham of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by his many friends and associates. The prize, currently consisting of a certificate and $1,500, is awarded to the best student paper presented at the conference. This prize represents a seminal honor since many Nottingham winners have gone on to become leaders in the field of surface science. In addition, you and your advisor's names are added to the Nottingham Wikipedia website.

Competing for the Nottingham Prize

A student abstract is based on a Ph.D. thesis whose date of submission is no earlier than one year before the meeting at which the Prize is given. In other words - all students who are working on, but have not yet completed, their Ph.D. thesis work are eligible. In addition, you are also eligible to compete if you have completed your Ph.D. work but your thesis was submitted less than one year ago. In this case, your talk must be on your Ph.D. thesis work, not on work undertaken subsequently.

The committee requests that the authorship for the submitted abstract be only the student and their PhD advisor(s). The committee will select a set of finalists based on the Nottingham Prize competition packet and tentatively plan to inform all applicants of their status by June 12, 2025. The registration fee will be waived for those who are selected as finalists.

All Nottingham contestants must complete and submit the abstract submission form. They must also complete a Nottingham Prize competition packet based in this template and upload it as a single PDF file. This will include (more details in template):

1. A cover letter. Include expected thesis submission and graduation dates.
2. This is a short letter.
3. A brief vita.