2020-Jan-11: The VERITAS Collaboration is pleased to recognize the recipients of the 2018 (inaugural) "Outstanding Contribution Awards". Each year the collaboration recognizes exceptional work by two individuals - a graduate student (the Simon Swordy Outstanding Contribution Award) and a postdoctoral researcher (the Trevor Weekes Outstanding Contribution Award), to "...formally recognize the significant contributions of more early-career members of the collaboration in the critical service work that enables scientific publications of VERITAS, but do not result in any scientific publications directly".

This year's recipients are:

Tony Lin (Simon Swordy Award) - Awarded in part for Tony's stint as a long-term FLWO visitor in Fall 2018. Tony's citation reads, in part, "...it is to the observing burden for the season that his most significant service came; if it were not for his contributions at (seasonal) start-up and selflessly taking on czaring duties on three further occasions, often at short notice, VERITAS would not have met its minimum observing yield in what was a very challenging season..."

Dr. Ralph Bird  (Trevor Weekes Award) - Awarded in part for Ralph's of VERITAS' Data Archive and VEGAS analysis code. The citation reads, in part, "He maintains the data archive at UCLA... He maintains and leads the efforts for the VEGAS standard analysis package both in terms of contributing software and in performing the verification tests of each release. He has led the effort to extend the archiving computing environment... He has also found the time, as a new father, to come to site and observe on two separate occasions last season."

Congratulations to Tony and Ralph!

Tony Lin    Ralph Bird