The CMS Collaboration honors people that have made outstanding and exceptional contributions to the strength of CMS by rewarding several different awards. Each award and the list of winners can be found from the links given on the right. CMS Collaborators can find more information about nominations and selections for these awards here.

CMS Award

In 2020 the CMS Award supersede the Detector and the Achievement awards that were awarded previously. Find more here here.

Achievement Awards

Begun in 2007, the annual Achievement Awards honor individuals who have distinguished themselves by performing significant and lasting contributions to different components of the CMS experiment.
The recipients are selected by a committee appointed by the Chair of the Collaboration Board.
The award is presented yearly at a ceremony during the CMS week in February.

Detector Awards


The annual CMS Detector Awards are an acknowledgement to the CMS members that recently gave or are currently giving substantial and outstanding contributions to the project and construction of CMS detectors or parts of them, or in general implementations of upgrade projects.

PhD Thesis Award

Every year, the Ph.D. Thesis Award recognizes and rewards excellence in Ph.D. thesis research.
Selections for this prestigious award are made by a committee appointed by the Chair of the Collaboration board for students who submitted their Ph.Ds the previous year between November 1 and October 31 and they are recognized at the CMS week in June.
The thesis are judged on their content, originality, clarity of writing, and impact within CMS and the high energy physics in general and can be written on any CMS-related work (physics analysis, simulation, computing, detector development, engineering, etc.).
More information can be found here.

Young Researcher’s Medal and Prize

The CMS Young Researcher Prize is intended to recognize outstanding achievements of the young members of CMS, and so help them to obtain positions in our field or further afield. The Prize is to be awarded annually to several young* members of CMS who have made a very significant and sustained contribution to CMS over many years in any area (hardware, software, technical, analysis). The prize includes a cash sum of CHF 1000 and a momento for each recipient.

*Considered to have less than eight years of experience after gaining their Ph.D. in physics or less than 10 years of work experience for other areas.

Industry Awards

Starting in 2000, the CMS Collaboration has honored industrial companies that have made outstanding contributions to the construction of the experiment with the CMS Gold Award.
Companies who have demonstrated their excellence and engagement and who provide parts within specifications and on schedule are considered for this award.
Firms who, in addition, have made special efforts and taken initiative to work out technically and/or commercially better products are honored with the CMS Crystal Award.
Companies who have explored novel technologies and collaborated in R&D programs with CMS are candidates for this award. Find more here: https://cms.cern/content/industry-awards

Named Lectures

Outstanding speakers chosen each year are given the opportunity to present their work during an opening plenary session of a CMS week and given an honorarium.
The lectures commemorate Peter Sharp and Lorenzo Foa for their exemplary careers.