During the conference dinner of the EXRS 2014 the president of EXSA, Andreas Karydas, bestowed the EXSA awards of 2014.

The EXSA award on outstanding career in X-ray Spectrometry was awarded to Alex von Bohlen, Germany.

Dr. Alex von Bohlen works since more than 30 years in the field of X-ray spectrometry. According to the SCI he has published as author/coauthor more than 120 regular and review papers in high impact journals receiving so far more than 3000 citations (excluding self-citations) and achieving an h-factor better than 30.

The last 30 years Alex von Bohlen is working at the Institute of Analytical Sciences in Dortmund developing and exploiting at the laboratory and synchrotron scale innovative TXRF, Grazing Incidence/Grazing Exit XRF and Wavelength dispersive microprobe analytical methodologies and applications: The list of applications that Alex von Bohlen and co-authors have been carried out is remarkable: from the microanalysis of environmental samples (airborne particulate matter, particulate phase from a diesel car exhaust, heavy metals in automobile catalytic converters samples from oil-refining and chemical industries) to the trace elements analysis of biomaterials (like the dental plaque films, human cancerous and healthy tissues, cultures, proteins), foodstuff (vegetables, Chinese tea, wine) to the pioneer applications of GIXRF and related methods for the depth resolved analysis of shallow layers in semiconductor wafers, multilayered structures, nanoparticles and organic nano-composite films. Last but not least, Alex von Bohlen applied TXRF analytical techniques in the field of Art and Archaeometry, where he introduced in prestigious journals the minute sampling of oil-painting or manuscript pigments for subsequent TXRF elemental analysis as well the lacquer layer analysis in violins.

The young scientist award for the best PhD thesis in the field of X-ray spectrometry was awarded to Matthias Alfeld, Germany and the Post-Doc award to Beatrix Pollakowski, Germany.

Dr. Matthias Alfeld studied chemistry and received his doctor’s degree 2013 for his dissertation about “Development of scanning macro-XRF for the investigation of historical paintings”. Currently he is employed by DESY in Hamburg.
Dr. Beatrix Pollakowski studied physics and received her doctor’s degree 2011 for her dissertation on the Development and validation of the methodology GIXRF-NEXAFS for the analysis of deeply buried nano-layered systems. Currently she is PostDoc at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Berlin, where she further develops and applies this methodology in various projects.

EXSA congratulates all laureates.