Prize Recipient

Anders Nilsson
Stockholm University

"For seminal contributions in the application of x-ray spectroscopy methods to the molecular dynamics of water and catalytic reactions."

Anders Nilsson is professor of Chemical Physics at Stockholm University and Photon Science at Stanford University. He received a ME degree from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm in 1981 and a PhD in Physics from Uppsala University, Sweden in 1989 in the laboratory created by the Nobel Laureate Kai Siegbahn. In 2000, he was recruited to Stanford University as an associate professor in photon science and full professor in 2008. He moved to Stockholm in 2014 on a distinguished international recruitment grant by the Swedish Research Council. His honors include, Lindbomska Award by the Swedish Royal Academy of Science, the Ångström Award, Royal Oscar Award, The Shirley Award, Humboldt Senior Research Award, Morino Lectureship Award, Ørsteds Lecture Award and Honorary Doctor at Denmark Technical University. He is a member of the APS and the EU academy of sciences. He has pioneered the use of x-ray spectroscopy and x-ray scattering to molecular dynamics in the context of processes on surfaces related to catalysis and to properties of of water and aqueous solutions. He has taken these research topics to a new level by utilizing the capabilities of the new x-ray laser sources. In particular, he has used x-ray lasers to probe transient states on ultrafast time scales during catalytic surface reactions and observed critical fluctuations and a liquid-liquid transition in water that can explain water’s anomalous properties.