Esen Ercan Alp is a senior physicist in the X-ray Science division. He joined Argonne as a postdoctoral associate in the Materials Science division, and subsequently became assistant physicist in the X-ray Scattering group. Dr. Alp moved to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) project in 1990 to lead the development of the 3-ID beamline for nuclear resonant and inelastic X-ray scattering. From 1999-2003 he was the group leader for the inelastic scattering group. During this time, he was responsible for the design and construction of a novel groundbreaking beamline for high-resolution inelastic scattering measurements at 30-ID.

His research has focused on the development of nuclear resonance scattering techniques and applying them to problems in condensed matter physics, geophysics and biochemistry. He has co-authored over 310 publications, which have been cited more than 8,800 times. He has been extensively involved in international scientific outreach efforts through the American Physical Society, including participation in the SEASAME synchrotron project in Amman, Jordan.

Dr. Alp is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and was named one of the 100 best Turkish scientists in the world by the president of Turkey. He was recently named the 2019winner of the IBAME Science Award, given every two years to one of the top Mössbauer spectroscopists world-wide. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in metallurgy and materials science from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and a Ph.D. in physics from Southern Illinois University, where his thesis focused on using Mössbauer spectroscopy to understand metallic glasses.