EMAS and Thermo Fisher Scientific are proud to announce the Bastin PhD Thesis Award to promote and reward the interest in microbeam analysis and related techniques by young people in the early stages of a scientific or technical career. This award, created officially in 2019, replaces the EMAS Thesis Award.
This award is named after Giel (Guillaume) F. Bastin (1944 - 2015) to honour his tremendous work on developing quantitative capabilities of ultra-light elements on electron microprobes, and for being one of the founding fathers of the European Microbeam Analysis Society (EMAS), which he presided from 2001 to 2005. The Bastin Fund used for this award is financially supported by Thermo Fisher Scientific, yet the scientific works are exclusively and independently evaluated by an ad-hoc committee from the EMAS Board and expert co-opted members of the EMAS community.
The Bastin PhD Thesis award may be presented at the next EMAS European workshop to an author of a PhD-thesis in the field of electron microscopy related microanalysis. To be eligible, an applicant should be a paid-up ‘regular’ member at the time of application (student status is no longer acceptable since the applicant has already obtained their PhD degree). A verification of the applicant’s membership status will be made when the application is received.
Submissions are receivable until 2 years after graduation. If no European EMAS conference has taken place in the last two years, this period is extended until the last submission deadline.
The PhD thesis must have a completion date after the last submission deadline (e.g., September 1st, 2024 23:59 CEST for the 2027 Award).
EMAS Board members are eligible to apply, provided they fulfil the deadlines of the submission and compliance criteria.
Compliance Criteria
Examples of EM-related microanalysis are: Microanalytical systems attached to EPMA (electron probe microanalysis), SEM (scanning electron microscopy) or TEM (transmission electron microscopy) utilising the electron beam as its primary source. Thus, EDS (energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), WDS (wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), CL (cathodoluminescence), EBSD (electron backscatter diffraction), TKD (transmission Kikuchi diffraction), etc. Additionally X-ray/electron transport modelling related to any of those microanalysis techniques above.
Ion beam-related analyses (e.g. SIMS (secondary-ion mass spectrometry), TOF-SIMS (time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry), FIB (focussed ion beam)) and X-ray source microanalysis (XRF, Synchrotron source) are not included and are only possible as a supplement in combination with the examination methods described above.
The Prize
The winning applicant will receive three years complimentary EMAS regular membership and a € 2,500 cash prize. Additionally, the Guillaume F. Bastin Fund will cover all reasonable travel (up to an amount of about €1,500), hotel, and workshop registration costs the award winner is invited for attending the next EMAS European Workshop where they would be offered to give a 25-minute oral presentation with 5 min questions. The presentation at the Workshop is encouraged, but not obligatory. It is within the power of the EMAS Board to award more than one winner in a given period in which case the cash prize will be shared.
Submission Process
Next deadline for submission: 23:59pm (CEST) Tuesday June 30th, 2026. By the application deadline, the candidate must provide EMAS with the following:
A letter from the supervisor is NOT required. The application should be sent via e-mail to the EMAS Secretary () who will collate all submissions and forward the completed list to the Education Officer and the Bastin Fund Trustees immediately after the deadline.
