Recipients of the IEEE NPSS Radiation Effects Early Achievement Award since its first presentation in 2019. The 2026 award was presented at NSREC 2026 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Biographies are reproduced from the IEEE NPSS Radiation Effects Committee page.
For contributions to the implementation of fiber-based sensor and detector technologies in radiation environments.
For contributions to the understanding of degradation mechanisms induced by total ionizing dose in CMOS devices fabricated with advanced technology nodes, in particular, at ultra-high radiation doses.
Stefano Bonaldo (Member, IEEE) received the M.Sc. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the University of Padova, Padua, Italy, in 2016 and 2020, respectively. He was a Ph.D. Visitor Student with Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA, for one year. Since 2020, he has been a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova. His research interests include the development of innovative electrochemical biosensors and their electrical modeling with applications in the medical and agrifood sectors, and the exploration of radiation effects in ultra-scaled CMOS technologies for space and high-energy physics applications.
For contributions to the study of pulsed lasers for single-event effects testing and dedication to service within the radiation effects community.
Dr. Adrian Ildefonso is a research engineer in the Photophysics and Radiation Effects Section at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., USA. In January 2025, he will join Indiana University Bloomington as an assistant professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering. Dr. Ildefonso received his B.S. degree in computer engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Mayagüez, PR, USA, in 2009. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
At NRL, Dr. Ildefonso’s research has centered on understanding and mitigating the effects of ionizing radiation on semiconductor devices, circuits, and systems for space applications. He specializes in various techniques that complement accelerator-based testing for single-event effects (SEEs), including the use of pulsed lasers to emulate the SEEs produced by ionizing particles in microelectronic systems. Recently, his work has focused on intentionally tailoring laser-induced charge deposition profiles for accurate prediction of particle-induced SEEs.
Dr. Ildefonso actively contributes to the radiation effects community as a member of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. He has served as a reviewer and technical committee member for the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) and the Radiation Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS) conference. Passionate about STEM outreach, science communication, and workforce development, Dr. Ildefonso’s dedication extends beyond his research. From 2020 to 2023, he served as the social media coordinator for the IEEE NPSS Radiation Effects Steering Group (RESG), spearheading initiatives to modernize NSREC’s digital presence and develop informative content for young professionals, including videos on how to prepare a strong summary and how to deliver a great oral and poster presentation.
Dr. Ildefonso has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and has received several best paper awards, including the NSREC Outstanding Student Paper and Outstanding Conference Paper awards in 2018. He has also been honored with the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant and the IEEE NPSS Graduate Scholarship. Dr. Ildefonso’s transition to Indiana University will allow him to leverage his experience at NRL to continue advancing his research in microelectronics for extreme environments, while mentoring the next generation of engineers to strengthen the microelectronics workforce.
For contribution to the understanding of single event effects in microelectronics used in accelerator and space applications.
Dr. Rubén García Alía is part of the “Radiation to Electronics” (R2E) project at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, which he has led since 2018. After studying nuclear and high-energy physics at the Complutense University in Madrid (Spain), he started his career in radiation effects as a Young Graduate Trainee at the European Space Agency, in the Netherlands. From there, he completed his PhD with CERN and the University of Montpellier, focusing on the effect of highly energetic particles on Single Event Effects (SEE) in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator. During this period, he was recognized with the “Best Student Paper” award at the 2012 Radiation Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS) Conference and the IEEE NPSS Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant in 2015. Since then, he has kept a strong involvement in radiation effects research, focusing on high-energy accelerator applications, and has co-authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has co-authored a RADECS Short Course, has been session chair at the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects (NSRE) and RADECS Conferences, and was the technical chair for RADECS 2021. In 2020 he was elected as a Member-at-Large of the IEEE NPSS Radiation Effects Steering Group (RESG). He also received the NSREC 2022 Meritorious Paper Award for his work on high-energy ion fragmentation for SEE testing.
At CERN, Rubén’s main task is managing the R2E project, which is responsible for all radiation effects in the LHC accelerator and its injector chain, with the mandate of ensuring successful operation with regards to stochastic failures and lifetime degradation induced by radiation. The project, which is composed of more than 50 members, embeds a rich variety of activities and expertise, ranging from the monitoring and calculation of radiation levels, the operation and upgrade of CERN radiation facilities, and testing for radiation effects at both component and system level.
Between 2017 and 2022, Rubén coordinated the RADSAGA (RADiation and reliability challenges for electronics used in Space, Aviation, Ground and Accelerators), an innovative training Marie Curie PhD network. Currently, he is leading the RADiation facility Network for the EXploration of effects for indusTry and research (RADNEXT) and High-Energy Accelerators for Radiation Testing and Shielding (HEARTS) European Union projects, the first related to a network of European irradiation facilities and the second focusing on the development of European capabilities for high-energy heavy ion testing.
For contributions to radiation effects research to understand heavy ion induced degradation in Silicon Carbide Schottky diodes and leadership in the radiation effects community.
Dr. Arto Javanainen is a senior researcher and group co-lead in the RADEF group in the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä (JYU), Finland. He received his Ph.D. in applied nuclear physics in August 2012. From 2015 to 2016, he held 1-year appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering (EE) at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. Since March 2016, he has held the appointment (concurrent with his appointment at JYU) as Adjoint Assistant Professor in EE at Vanderbilt. Dr. Javanainen’s research has covered widely the radiation effects in semiconductor materials and devices, including experimental and theoretical studies of particle-matter interactions in solids, as well as experimental and modeling studies of heavy-ion induced effects in power devices. Recently his research has focused on the radiation effects in Silicon Carbide power devices, and also the proton direct ionization effects in deep submicron technologies. These research activities have been carried out in collaboration with CERN, ETH Zurich, Vanderbilt University, NASA, and ESA. In the past years, he has been involved in several research and educational projects funded by European Space Agency (ESA), and European Union (EU) (e.g., RADSAGA and RADNEXT). Most recently he has been acting as the local academic coordinator at JYU for an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree program called “Radiation and its Effects on MicroElectronics and Photonics Technologies” (RADMEP).
He is actively involved in the radiation effects community, having served as reviewer, session chair, and committee member in some of the past RADiation Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS) and IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects (NSREC) conferences. He is currently the elected Secretary of the Radiation Effects Steering Group. His honors include the Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant from IEEE NPSS in 2013. He was also a short course instructor in NSREC 2019 conference.
Dr. Javanainen has authored and co-authored more than 60 publications in the field of radiation effects in electronics, and he is Member of IEEE and NPSS. According to Web of Science the h-index for his publications is 14. More details on his academic records at https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1307627
For contributions to the understanding of radiation effects on solid-state image sensors, particularly the origins of radiation-induced dark current random telegraph signals.
Cédric Virmontois is a detection chain and radiation expert at Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse. He received the Engineering degree in Physics from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) of Toulouse in 2008 and the Ph.D. degree in Microelectronic and radiation effects from the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE Supaero) of Toulouse in 2012. His Ph.D. research focused on displacement damage-induced degradation effects in CMOS image sensors. Since receiving his Ph.D. degree, Cédric has been working on radiation effects on solid-state image sensors and optoelectronic devices. First, he has focused on radiation effects on CMOS Image Sensor (CIS), especially on radiation induced dark current. Cedric has also contributed to the understanding and modeling of dark-current Random Telegraph Signals (RTS) in CIS. He contributed to the discovery of total ionizing dose-induced RTS in silicon-based image sensors. Then, Cédric has extended his radiation effects knowledge to other solid-state imaging technologies and focused on dark current RTS similarities in CIS and CCD devices (silicon-based sensors). He was the first to highlight the RTS discrepancies between silicon, mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe), and indium gallium arsenic (InGaAs) image sensors.
At CNES, Cédric focused his work for more than five years on radiation effects in the most recent generation of pinned photodiode CIS to make it possible to use this advanced technology in space. Today, this technology is exploited in numerous space imaging missions and is used especially in the SuperCam imager developed by Cedric, which is employed on the Perseverance MARS2020 NASA Rover. Today, Cedric directs the development of 4 imaging instruments based on this advanced technology.
Cédric has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a Senior Member of IEEE. He has served in many roles at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference and Radiation Effects on Components and Systems Conference, as Short Course speaker, Session Chair Photonic Devices and ICs and member of the best technical award committee. For the past 10 years he has been a technical paper reviewer. Since 2012, Cédric was General Chairman of the annual Radiation Effects on Optoelectronic Detectors Workshop and Co-Chairman of the Space and Scientific CMOS Image Sensor Workshop organized by CNES.
His honors include four best conference paper awards, five outstanding student paper awards, and the IEEE Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant for recognition of contributions to the fields of nuclear and plasma.
For contributions to radiation effects research in high-speed analog and mixed-signal electronics and student mentorship in the radiation effects community.
Dr. Daniel Loveless is a UC Foundation Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, in 2004 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Prior to joining UTC in 2014, Dr. Loveless was a senior engineer and Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) at Vanderbilt University where he was involved in radiation effects research related to high-speed analog and mixed-signal circuits (AMS) and in the modeling and design of integrated circuits for the evaluation of radiation effects in advanced CMOS technologies. Dr. Loveless joined UTC in 2014 where he established a microelectronics research program focused on radiation effects and reliability in electronic and photonic integrated circuits and on the design of radiation hardening-by-design methodologies. Additionally, he founded the UTChattSat program focused on undergraduate research and education in small-satellites, space systems engineering, and radiation effects. Dr. Loveless has published over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a Senior Member of IEEE. His honors include five best conference paper awards and the IEEE NPSS Graduate Scholarship Award for recognition of contributions to the fields of nuclear and plasma.