Sep 13 2005
Ralph James, Associate Laboratory Director for Energy, Environment & National Security at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been honored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society as the recipient of the 2005 Radiation Instrumentation Outstanding Achievement Award. James will receive the award, consisting of $2,000 and a plaque, on October 25, at the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, which will be held in Puerto Rico.
James won the award for “experimental and theoretical contributions leading to the development of semiconductor radiation detectors and innovative field-portable instrumentation.”
James developed a new class of small semiconductor-based radiation detectors that can work very efficiently at room temperature to detect both x-rays and gamma rays. He also developed lightweight, hand-held instruments to carry these detectors, making them easily portable. The detectors, made either of cadmium zinc telluride or mercuric iodide, as well as other materials, can identify specific isotopes responsible for the radiation. Many of the devices have been commercialized, and applications include medical imaging, nuclear nonproliferation, environmental monitoring, and nuclear and space sciences.
“I am honored to receive this award,” James said. “I could not have brought the detector materials and fabrication technology to fruition without the help of very talented people from Department of Energy labs, academia and industry. It is particularly gratifying to see that these devices have become useful in numerous areas, from identifying tumors to safeguarding nuclear materials.”
James earned a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, in 1976, an M.S. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, in 1977, another M.S. in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1978, and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Caltech in 1980. He was a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1981-1984, and in 1984, he joined the staff of DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories, where he worked as a distinguished member of the technical staff. In June 2001, James came to Brookhaven Lab to assume his current position. He oversees a wide range of basic and applied research, including the development of counter-terrorist technologies.
James holds nine patents, has authored or co-authored more than 310 scientific publications, and has edited 15 books. In addition, he is recognized for a long history of mentorship and leadership contributions to professional societies. For example, he served as chair or co-chair of over 20 international conferences sponsored by scientific and engineering societies.
James’s scientific accomplishments in the area of advanced radiation detectors won him Discover magazine’s “Innovator of the Year” award in the field of imaging in 1997. He also is a four-time winner of R&D Magazine’s R&D 100 Award, which honors the top 100 inventions of the year, and the National Association for Seed and Venture Capital Funds selected James as co-winner of one of the “World’s 50 Best Technologies” awards. In 2004, James was honored with the Room-Temperature Semiconductor Radiation Detectors Scientist Award at IEEE’s Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference. James is a Fellow of IEEE, as well as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Society for Optical Engineering.
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