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Brookhaven Lab Physicist Receives Charles Hirsch Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

March 15, 2006

Aleksey Bolotnikov (click image to download hi-res version)

UPTON, NY - Aleksey Bolotnikov, an associate physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been named the 2006 recipient of the Charles Hirsch Award, which is given annually to a member of the Long Island Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). IEEE is a nonprofit, professional association that is a leading authority in technical areas ranging from aerospace and biomedical technology to computer engineering.

Named after a creative engineer at the Hazeltine Corporation, now BAE Systems, the Charles Hirsch Award is given for an outstanding technical contribution that has or is likely to find an application that benefits Long Island. Bolotnikov won the award for developing highly efficient room temperature radiation detectors for homeland security and many other applications. He will be given a certificate at the IEEE Long Island Section's annual awards banquet at the Huntington Hilton on April 7.

Bolotnikov developed the detectors along with colleagues from Brookhaven Lab, Kansas State University, Rojeski Research Engineering and Design, and Yinnel Tech, Inc. The cadmium-zinc-telluride detectors are small, easily portable, can detect both x-rays and gamma rays with high resolution, and identify the specific source of radiation. Also, unlike most detectors of this type that must be chilled, they can be used at room temperature, and their performance is highly reliable with minimal maintenance.

"I am honored that IEEE has recognized my work," Bolotnikov said. "I'd like to acknowledge the strong support, encouragement, and leadership of my department and my colleagues at Brookhaven Lab who were instrumental in bringing about this successful technology."

Bolotnikov also was co-winner of the 2005 R&D 100 Award, given by R&D Magazine annually for the top 100 technological achievements of the year, for developing a cadmium-zinc-telluride detector. In addition to homeland security applications, the detectors developed by Bolotnikov and his colleagues can be used for nuclear medical imaging, environmental monitoring and cleanup, galactic events studies, and nuclear weapons safeguards.

Funding for the award-winning detectors came from Brookhaven's Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Bolotnikov earned an M.A. and Ph.D., both in physics, from the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute in 1983 and 1991, respectively. After working as postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University from 1991 to 1994, he became a National Research Council associate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1994 to 1997. He joined California Institute of Technology as a senior research scientist in 1997, and he came to Brookhaven Lab in 2003.

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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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