June 27, 2008

Gabriella Carini Wins IEEE Young Engineer Award

NSLS researcher Gabriella Carini has won the 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Long Island Section’s Outstanding Young Engineer Award for “outstanding contributions to the advancement of semiconductor detectors for x-ray spectroscopy.” The award is given to IEEE members who have made important technical contributions prior to age 35. The IEEE Long Island Section has about 3,000 members.

Gabriella Carini

Carini joined the Detector Development and Testing Division at Brookhaven’s Nonproliferation and National Security (NNS) Department as a graduate student in 2003. During this time, she was part of a team that developed a cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) Frisch-ring detector at BNL. This highly efficient, low-cost radiation detector can be used for homeland security applications, nuclear medical imaging, environmental monitoring and cleanup, galactic events studies, and nuclear-weapons safeguards. The development team received a 2005 R&D 100 Award for the device, which detects both x-rays and gamma rays with high resolution, and can identify the specific source of radiation.

“Data generated by Gabriella using the NSLS led to new thrusts for many organizations involved in the development of CZT x-ray and gamma detectors,” said Ralph James, a physicist in NNS. “It is rare to see a young scientist impact the directions of so many people.”

In 2006, Carini received her Ph.D. in electronic engineering from the University of Palermo, in Italy, and stayed at Brookhaven as a research associate with NNS. She led the development of the endstation at NSLS beamline X27B for microcharacterization of semiconductor detectors, and joined the NSLS Detectors Group as a research associate in late 2006. She was promoted to assistant physicist in April 2008.

“Since joining NSLS, Gabriella has led the effort to produce novel silicon detector arrays for the Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford,” said physicist Pete Siddons, who leads the NSLS Detectors Group. “Thanks to her skills and persistence, we have recently successfully demonstrated prototypes of this new detector.”

Carini received the award on April 4 at an IEEE banquet held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hauppauge.