John Weisend, CSA chairman, presented four awards at CEC/ICMC on July 1. John Urbin, a long-time board member and former CSA president who recently retired from Linde Cryogenics, received the Robert W. Vance Award, established to honor persons for their dedication and long-term commitment to the advancement of CSA. Urbin was honored for his long and supportive service to CSA and his contribution to enhancing the stature of the society internationally.

The inaugural William E. Gifford Award went Dr. Lionel Duband and his team at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) and their ARTEMIS project. The award is named in honor of Gifford, co-inventor of the Gifford-McMahon cycle and founder of Cryomech, Inc. (CSA CSM). It is given to a recipient in academia or a government laboratory using a pulse tube or Gifford-McMahon cycle cryocooler as a key research component. The award was accepted by Dr. Jean Marc Duval on behalf of Duband and the CEA team.

The George T. Mulholland Award was presented to Dr. Xihuan Hao, cryogenic research engineer at Advanced Research Systems, Inc. (CSA CSM). This award is named in memory of Mulholland, who served as CSA board secretary and was a Corporate Sustaining Member. It is given for notable engineering development in a particular area leading to a major contribution in the cryogenic field. Hao has demonstrated excellence in his research work in the field of cryocoolers with applications in areas such as cryosorption pumps, superconducting magnets and particle physics. He has targeted improvements in cooling performance and has successfully developed a 1.75 W at 4.2K pneumatic-drive GM cryocooler. His technical achievements are expected to create industrial breakthroughs in the field of GM refrigerators, improving their performance and reliability.

On a personal note, Hao and his wife recently welcomed a baby boy, and he was proud to report that they have given the boy the English name “George.”
Dr. Ron Ross Jr. was made a Fellow of the Cryogenic Society of America. Fellows are persons of distinction in cryogenics who have made notable, valuable contributions to the field. Ross, retired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is a long-time editor of the proceedings of the International Cryocoolers Conference and a leader in the cryogenics community. He was honored for his long and supportive service to CSA and his contribution to enhancing the stature of the society internationally.