Renate W. Chasman

The Renate W. Chasman Award was first given out in 1986 to Long Island-based women who were returning to school following an interruption in their studies to pursue an education in the sciences, engineering or mathematics. The award, which honors the memory of the accelerator physicist whose work underlies today’s synchrotron light sources world-wide, has now been given to over 38 exemplary and deserving graduate students in the STEM fields.

Renate Wiener Chasman (January 10, 1932 – October 17, 1977) was born Renate Wiener to German Jewish parents in Berlin. Her father, Hans Wiener, was a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In 1938, the Wiener family fled Nazi Germany through the Netherlands to Sweden, where Wiener grew up and attended school in Stockholm. Wiener and her sister Edith went to Israel to attend Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Wiener graduated in 1955 with a M.Sc in physics with minors in chemistry and mathematics. She earned her PhD in experimental physics in 1959. Her doctoral thesis demonstrated that a pseudoscalar component was not involved in parity nonconversation in beta decay.

Chien-Shiung Wu was doing similar work and invited Wiener to work at Columbia University as a research associate. There she met Wu’s graduate student Chellis Chasman and together they investigated beta decay. They married in 1962. In 1962, the Chasmans went to Yale University to work with David Allan Bromley in nuclear spectroscopy. Chasman joined Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1963. Beginning in the Department of Physics at Brookhaven, she transferred in 1965 to the Accelerator Department. In the following years, she facilitated important contributions to the development of particle accelerators, redesigning the alternating-gradient proton synchrotron (AGS).

In 1976-77, Ken Green, known for his early work on the Cosmotron and for managing the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) construction project, became the Design Manager for the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and Renate Chasman, who had been the chief theorist for the AGS linac injector, became the Theory Division Head. As principals of a committee chaired by Martin Blume, then of the Physics Department, they worked closely with others including Chalmers Frazer and Dick Watson of Physics; Jules Godel and Morris Perlman of the Chemistry Department; and John Blewett, Director's Office to design the NSLS.

The basic accelerator storage rings at the NSLS designed by Chasman and Green, were innovative structures capable of very high synchrotron light brightness, which were to hold the world record for brightness for many years. Blewett commented on her NSLS contributions:

“For some time, Rena and the late Ken Green were the whole team doing this design. The results of their work were quite remarkable; a design emerged which was a vast improvement on similar designs being evolved elsewhere in the world. Other machine designs were based on electron storage rings built for use in high energy physics. Rena recognized the different requirements for this machine and devised an arrangement of components peculiarly suited for use as a light source. Many other problems associated with the light source and its special components were solved either by Rena alone or in association with others who later joined the project.”

Together with George Kenneth Green, she was known for the invention of the Chasman-Green lattice for synchrotron storage rings.

Renate Chasman died in October 1977 from melanoma and Ken Green died the same year. The brilliant achievements of Chasman and Green are remembered around the world.

In a 1971 interview, Chasman stated, “I feel that many women are frustrated, and that they just stay home because they feel they have to do it. If a woman was satisfied by working in the house, that's fine. When she was no longer satisfied, she should do something about it.” To keep Chasman's spirit alive, the award was born, benefiting women studying science after taking time off to be homemakers and to raise their children.

At its inception, Associated Universities Incorporated (AUI) made a corporate donation of $1,000 to the Renate W. Chasman Award for Women. The first corporate donation of $500 was made by Long Island Trust, a commercial bank with 46 branches in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. It was solicited by Betty Heldman, a member of the WIS scholarship committee.

The Renate W. Chasman Award for Women is still awarded annually to exceptional candidates in STEM and administered by BWIS.

This year, BWIS is pleased to offer two awards of $3,250 each, made possible by generous contributions from the following groups: Long Island Section of the American Nuclear Society (LIANS), National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), Human Resources Directorate, Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate, Nuclear and Particle Physics Directorate, Center for Functional Nanomaterials Users Executive Committee, Computational Science Initiative and the NSLS-II Users Executive Committee.

Chasman Award Winners

Year	Name
2023	Anushka Banerjee, Yifan Ning, and Yifan Yin
2022	Xiaoyang Liu and Lynne LaRochelle-Richard
2021	Maria Stefaniak and Mikaela Dunkin
2020	Feng Zhang and Lei Wang
2019	Nusnin Akter and Mengen Wang
2018	Alla Peselis and Shruti Sharma
2017	Hannah Herde and Tiffany Victor
2016	Samema Sarowar
2015	Kristine Horvat
2014	Claire McKay Flynn and Kaitlyn Anne Suarez
2013	No Award Given
2012	Anna Goldberg and Jill Jermyn
2011	No Award Given
2010	Joanna Laroussi and Jamina Oomen-Hajagos
2009	Connie Yee
2008	Kasey Jacobs
2007	No Award Given
2006	Noelle Cutter
2005	Ismat Mahmood
2004	No Award Given
2003	Hyekyung Clarisse Kim
2002	Tamara Blain
2001	Gerda Oruci
2000	Barbara Jean Klaritch-Vrana
1999	Tracy Van Holt
1998	Roseanna Ryan
1997	Janet Dowdy
1996	Mary Carlucci-Dayton
1995	Kristen Curry Grace
1994	Lillian Vulin and Marjaneh Issapour
1993	Diana Friedland
1992	Janice McCarthy
1991	Mary Robinson
1990	Brenda Daniels and Nora Galambos
1989	Mary T. Belletti
1988	Nancy A. Budka
1987	Patricia Beach
1986	Rosemary Baker