Each year, the Department of Energy honors exceptional mid-career scientists whose accomplishments have only just begun. Scroll through the photo gallery to learn about this year’s winners of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, and read below to learn about its namesake.

Ernest Orlando Lawrence was a titan in the history of American science and innovation. His cyclotron was to nuclear science what Galileo’s telescope was to astronomy. It was the first particle accelerator, and it earned him the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Lawrence was also a champion of interdisciplinary science. The Radiation Laboratory he developed at UC Berkeley during the 1930s ushered in the era of “big science,” in which experiments were no longer done by an individual researcher but by large, multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers. During World War II, Lawrence and his accelerators contributed to the Manhattan Project, and he later played a leading role in establishing the system of National Laboratories, two of which (Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore) now bear his name. That integrated approach is more important today than ever for solving complex problems like climate change.

“No individual is alone responsible for a single stepping stone along the path of progress” — Ernest Orlando Lawrence

While Lawrence heralded a team approach to science, exceptional scientists deserve recognition. This year’s winners have already accomplished great things, but their greatest accomplishments may lie ahead.