The Roger W. Boom Award is named in honor of the emeritus professor from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Boom’s career spanned more than thirty years during which he motivated a great number of young scientists and engineers to pursue careers in cryogenic engineering and applied superconductivity.
This award was created by the Cryogenic Society of America to be given to a young professional (under 40 years of age) who “shows promise for making significant contributions to the fields of cryogenic engineering and applied superconductivity”. The spirit of the Boom Award is to recognize young people for their pursuit of excellence, demonstration of high standards and clear communications.
The Boom Award is usually given every even-numbered year, coinciding with the Applied Superconductivity Conference.
The selection committee chose Danko van der Laan “for his mix of strengths that are expected to make him one of the key leaders of Applied Superconductivity of his generation. An independent thinker, his fundamental work resulted in a highly practical outcome in the Conductor-on-Round-Core (CORC) cable implantation of a coated conductor, which technology he then moved to an industrial scale at his own company, Advanced Conductor Technologies, developing cables for high-field magnets and high-density power transmission. These CORC conductors are expected to be of major importance for future large scale superconducting magnet systems.”