Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Ivan Vitev has received a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The honor is the highest bestowed by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists early in their careers. Vitev joined the laboratory in 2004 as a J. Robert Oppenheimer Postdoctoral Fellow, the most distinguished postdoctoral appointment at the laboratory. Vitev is widely recognized for his expertise in quantum chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, and in energy loss of high-energy particles in hot, dense matter. His scientific work has been used to determine properties of the quark-gluon plasma, a new state of matter discovered in 2000 that is similar to what many scientists believe conditions of the universe were like immediately after the Big Bang. Vitev's research was funded by NNSA and DOE's Office of Science. As a PECASE recipient, he will receive up to five years' funding from the Office of Science to advance his research.