Sebastian Deffner, assistant professor of physics, has been elected as the 2016 winner of the Early Career Award of New Journal of Physics. He has been recognized as being an extremely talented young researcher who in his early career has proven leadership qualities. Particular notice was taken of his single author NJP paper on an extension of shortcuts to adiabaticity to Dirac systems, which was described as one of the top papers of last year, as well as a highly downloaded Perspective piece.