Carpenter to receive neutron scattering award

ARGONNE, Ill. (April 21, 2006) — Jack Carpenter of the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory will receive the 2006 Clifford G. Shull Prize from the Neutron Scattering Society of America for his groundbreaking work developing neutron sources and instrumentation.

Carpenter, technical director at Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source, is receiving the award "for seminal contributions to the development of neutron sources and instrumentation that have had world-wide impact on neutron scattering across a broad range of scientific disciplines, culminating in the optimized design of the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge."

The Clifford G. Shull Prize in Neutron Science is named in honor of Clifford G. Schull, who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1994 with Bertram Brockhouse for pioneering developments in neutron science.

"It is wonderful to have my name associated with Shull," Carpenter said, "and to have my work acknowledged by my community of colleagues."

Carpenter played a pivotal role in developing pulsed neutron sources across the globe, including the founding of IPNS. He pioneered exploitation of the inherent efficiency of the spallation process for producing neutrons, together with the advantages of pulsed operation and time-of-flight measurements to study structure and dynamics of materials. His patented design for the moderator-reflector combination is at the heart of modern pulsed neutron sources.

Carpenter said his data and patented source moderator "that boosted the intensity to interesting levels" helped pave the way to building IPNS. He played a major role in designing and overseeing construction of the IPNS, even using parts from the decommissioned Zero Gradient Synchrotron at Argonne.

Since the IPNS was completed in 1981, Carpenter's technical and strategic skills have been in demand to advise on all subsequent pulsed neutron sources built—the KEK in Japan, ISIS in the United Kingdom and the Lujan Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as the new generation of pulsed source facilities—AUSTRON in Austria, J-PARC in Japan, ESS in Europe and the soon-to-be-opened Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Carpenter's contributions to developing pulsed-source instrumentation and coupling neutron source performance and instrument design have expanded the use of pulsed neutron sources to a broad range of scientific endeavors.

"When IPNS opened, we established a simple proposal and peer-review system for making the facility available to a widespread community of users, which was later used as a model across the country with other large research facilities," Carpenter said. Previously such facilities were available only to a small, dedicated group of researchers on staff.

The award will be presented during the American Conference on Neutron Scattering, June 18-22, in St. Charles.

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For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.