Congratulations to David Alex Chin, who was recently selected by the American Physical Society (APS) as the winner of the 2026 GCCM (Topical Group on Compression of Condensed Matter) Student and Dissertation Award. Alex is currently an Assistant Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. For his dissertation, Alex developed an EXAFS (extended x-ray absorption fine structure) flat-crystal spectrometer capable of measuring high-resolution x-ray spectra. He designed and built the spectrometer from the ground up and successfully deployed it to probe the electronic structure of iron(iii) oxide at pressures up to 800 GPa.
The committee received a total of eight nominations—five from the dynamic compression field and three from the static compression field—making for a highly competitive pool of candidates. The award was chaired by Sakun Duwal (Sandia National Laboratories), and committee members included Eric Brown (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Daniel Eakins (University of Oxford), Rebecca Lindsey (University of Michigan), and Anirban Mandal (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory).
Congratulations, Alex!