Senajith “Seno” Rekawa, a mechanical scientist/engineer in Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division and Deputy for the Center for X-ray Optics (CXRO), was awarded ASPE’s 2025 Distinguished Service Award in a ceremony on November 6, 2025, during the society’s annual meeting held in San Diego, California.

“In my opinion, there is no one more deserving, and I was surprised to discover that you had not been honored a long time ago,” Stuart Smith, Professor and President of ASPE, remarked when the award was announced. “Your continuous and extensive support and involvement in both the organization of conferences and topical meetings, as well as the background work you have put in to consolidate the administrative infrastructure, have been pivotal to bringing the society where it is today. Outside of your service activities, your contributions to the field of precision instrument design and systems development are also recognized throughout the global precision engineering community.”

Rekawa has been a member of ASPE since 2003 and has been active within the organization throughout his two-decade membership. He has held several leadership positions, including Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President.

“When I came to Berkeley Lab, I was a mechanical engineer,” explained Rekawa. “I felt like there was a huge gap between what I knew and what I needed to be able to do to produce nanometer-precision instrumentation. And so I looked for a society that would guide me, and a place where I could go and talk to people to really understand what I didn’t know. And I think I have benefited more than what I have actually given back to the society.”

Rekawa first came to Berkeley Lab as a summer intern in 1991, helping to build the Advanced Light Source (ALS) storage ring. He joined the Engineering Division as a full-time staff member in 1994, designing and building world-leading beamlines and endstations at the ALS as an engineer for the Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO). Several of these early instruments, such as the CXRO scatterometry and the soft-x-ray microscopy beamlines, and the EUV lithography and Mask Inspection endstations, remain in operation and are world-leading today.

“Seno has been instrumental in building up the precision engineering capability in the Engineering Division,” says Daniela Leitner, Engineering Division Director. “I am very pleased that he was recognized by ASPE for his many contributions to this field. At LBNL, if there is a technical design review, you will be well-served by adding Seno to your review team, as I have done several times for my projects. I value his engineering judgment and expertise very much.”

Today, Rekawa helps build one-of-a-kind instrumentation for areas including microelectronic research.