APS News

Spring 2022 APS Prizes and Awards Recipients

October 15, 2021

APS has announced the Society’s Spring 2022 prize and award recipients, including those for the 2021 LeRoy Apker Award for undergraduate research, the 2021 Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach, and the 2021 Stanford R. Ovshinsky Sustainable Energy Fellowship.

The APS Prizes and Awards recognize outstanding achievements in research, education, and public service. With few exceptions, they are open to all members of the scientific community in the US and abroad. The nomination and selection procedure, involving APS-appointed selection committees, guarantees high standards and prestige.

The new honorees are:

2022 David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics

Axel Hoffmann, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
For pioneering work, engaging lectures, and comprehensive reviews advancing the understanding of spin transport and magnetization dynamics in magnetic multilayers.

2022 Will Allis Prize for the Study of Ionized Gases

Toshiaki Makabe, Keio University
For the ground-breaking development of novel computational methods, and for leading seminal experimental investigations of low temperature plasmas and their applications.

2021 LeRoy Apker Award

Joseph R. Farah, University of Massachusetts Boston
For the invention of the selective dynamical imaging method, with applications for studying rapidly-varying black holes.

Caelan Brooks, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
For the discovery of distinct dynamical regimes for coherent ultracold atoms confined in a ring-shaped lattice potential; and for developing a statistical model that depicts the formation of phenotypic patterns associated with bacterial biofilm growth.

2022 Hans A. Bethe Prize

Madappa Prakash, Ohio University
For fundamental contributions to the physics of hot and dense matter, and their implications for heavy ion collisions and multi-messenger observations of neutron star structure and evolution.

2022 Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics

David W. Hertzog, University of Washington
For advancing the frontiers of understanding nature's fundamental symmetries via unprecedented precision studies of the muon, including its lifetime, its anomalous magnetic moment, and its measurement by the pseudoscalar coupling constant.

2022 Edward A. Bouchet Award

Paul L. J. Guèye, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University
For many seminal experimental contributions to understanding the structure of nuclear particles and decades of service to physics outreach, diversity, and inclusion, particularly throughout the African Diaspora.

2022 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize

Gene Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[Dresselhaus received the Buckley Prize shortly before his passing on September 29, 2021.]
Emmanuel I. Rashba, Harvard University

For pioneering research on spin-orbit coupling in crystals, particularly the foundational discovery of chiral spin-orbit interactions, which continue to enable new developments in spin transport and topological materials.

2022 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award

Robert L. Jaffe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
For bringing a physics perspective into policy discussions in academia and government over the last half-century, from the development of the Stanford Workshops on Social and Political Issues to influential work on policy and education regarding critical elements, energy, and climate.

2022 Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics

David S. Weiss, Penn State
For pioneering contributions to the experimental realization of strongly interacting one-dimensional Bose gases and groundbreaking studies of their quantum dynamics, and for contributions to quantum computing with neutral atoms in optical lattices.

2022 Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics

Terence Tai-Li Hwa, University of California, San Diego
For developing quantitative studies that reveal fundamental constraints on bacterial physiology, and for formulating simple phenomenological theories that quantitatively predict bacterial responses to genetic and environmental changes.

2022 John H. Dillon Medal

Jian Qin, Stanford University
For the advancement of analytical and computational tools in the thermodynamics and morphology of ionic or ion-containing polymeric materials.

2022 Excellence in Physics Education Award

TEAM-UP Task Force
For groundbreaking analysis revealing sources of persistent underrepresentation of African-Americans in physics and astronomy; recommendation of data-driven, systemic strategies to increase the number of African-American physics bachelor's degree recipients; and ways to catalyze cultural change.

2022 Prize for a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution

Derek F. Jackson Kimball, California State University - East Bay
For innovative methods in dark matter detection, exemplary contributions to research, and high impact teaching to a diverse undergraduate student body using research projects.

2022 Herman Feshbach Prize in Theoretical Nuclear Physics

David B Kaplan, Institute for Nuclear Theory
For multiple foundational innovations in nuclear theory, including in lattice quantum chromodynamics, effective field theories, and nuclear strangeness, and for strategic leadership to broaden participation between nuclear theory and other fields.

2022 Richard A. Isaacson Award in Gravitational-Wave Science

Peter Fritschel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
For over three decades of key contributions to instrumentation for gravitational-wave detectors, and in particular for scientific leadership in the design and commissioning of Advanced LIGO, enabling the first detection of gravitational waves and the many detections that followed.

2022 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids

Manfred Fiebig, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich
For pioneering nonlinear optical spectroscopy studies that led to a fundamental understanding of the emergence and coupling of electric and magnetic orders at the level of domains and domain walls.

2022 Leo P. Kadanoff Prize

Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, New York University
For pioneering experimental, theoretical, and numerical research on the nonlinear and multifractal foundations of turbulent flows.

2022 Joseph F. Keithley Award for Advances in Measurement Science

Daniel Rugar, IBM Research
H.J. (John) Mamin, IBM Research
For seminal developments in magnetic force microscopy leading to significant measurement advancements, including the detection of a single electron spin and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging at the nanometer scale.

2022 Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing

Liang Jiang, The University of Chicago
For substantial contributions to the field of theoretical quantum information science, with emphasis on exploiting novel error correction strategies to enhance performance in a manner compatible with state-of-the-art experimental platforms, and for helping establish new foundations for fault-tolerant and practical quantum communication, computing, and sensing.

2022 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award

Blakesley Burkhart, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
For outstanding contributions to theoretical astrophysics, elucidating the physics of interstellar turbulence and its impact on star formation on multiple spatial scales.

2022 James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials

Daniel C. Ralph, Cornell University
For pioneering studies of materials physics in spin-transport and related devices.

2021 Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach

Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, University of California, Santa Cruz
For innovations in mentoring, such as the Lamat Program, all of which have demonstrated how members of historically marginalized populations can thrive, lead, and advance scientific enterprise in astronomy and related fields.

2022 Lars Onsager Prize

David A. Huse, Princeton University
Boris Altshuler, Columbia University
Igor L. Aleiner, Columbia University; Google Quantum AI

For foundational work on many-body localization, its associated phase transition, and implications for thermalization and ergodicity.

2022 Irwin Oppenheim Award

Amir Erez, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Andrew Mugler, University of Pittsburgh
Michael Vennettilli, AMOLF

For demonstrating the trade-offs associated with feedback-induced criticality in multicellular sensing, through analysis of simple models, which is published in the article entitled “Multicellular sensing at a feedback-induced critical point” in Physical Review E 102, 052411 (2020).

2021 Stanford R. Ovshinsky Sustainable Energy Fellowship

Jesús M. Velázquez, University of California, Davis

For transformative research accomplishments advancing the production of solar fuels, elucidating fundamental design principles underpinning negative emissions science, and for articulating a bold vision of a sustainable chemical industry using CO₂ instead of fossil fuels as the primary feedstock.

2022 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics

Patricia Fara, Clare College, Cambridge
For outstanding and wide-ranging scholarship on the history of science, especially regarding the physical sciences in the 17th through the 20th centuries, and for bringing attention to neglected contributors to the physical sciences, including female physicists and practical workers such as navigators and instrument makers.

2022 George E. Pake Prize

Philip J. Wyatt, Wyatt Technology Corporation
For pioneering accomplishments and entrepreneurial leadership exemplified by successful global commercialization of laser-based light scattering measurements with multiple applications in biotechnology, analytical chemistry, and nanoparticle characterization.

2022 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics

Byron G. Lundberg, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Regina Abby Rameika, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Kimio Niwa, Nagoya University
Vittorio Paolone, University of Pittsburgh

For the first direct observation of the tau neutrino through its charged-current interactions in an emulsion detector.

2022 Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy & Dynamics

Arthur G. Suits, University of Missouri
For foundational studies in photodissociation and reaction dynamics, especially the identification of roaming atom dynamics, and for innovative developments in charged particle detection in molecular beams, such as the DC sliced ion imaging method.

2022 Polymer Physics Prize

Sanat K Kumar, Columbia University
For fundamental experimental, simulatory, and theoretical contributions to understanding structure, assembly, and dynamics in polymer nanocomposites and thin films.

2022 Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics

Benjamin Nachman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
For innovative contributions to the search for new physics in collider data incorporating original machine learning algorithms, and for the effective communication of these new techniques to the broader physics community.

2022 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics

Giulia Galli, University of Chicago; Argonne National Laboratory
For the development of theoretical methods to compute and engineer the electronic and structural properties of molecules and materials, broadening the applicability of first-principles computational approaches to multiple disciplines, including nanoscience, and for many predictions subsequently confirmed experimentally.

2022 Norman F. Ramsey Prize in Atomic, Molecular and Optical physics, and in Precision Tests of Fundamental Laws and Symmetries

Mikhail Lukin, Harvard University
For contributions to quantum information science, sensing, and physics, including the development of Rydberg atom-based quantum simulators.

2022 Jonathan F. Reichert and Barbara Wolff-Reichert Award for Excellence in Advanced Laboratory Instruction

Sean P. Robinson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
For leading and helping to develop Junior Lab, MIT's advanced physics laboratory, and for pedagogical excellence that extends to the broader advanced physics laboratory community.

2022 Andrei Sakharov Prize

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto
For seven decades of tireless activism for a nuclear-weapons-free world, for upholding human rights and freedom of speech globally, for public education on the essential role of science in society, and for a visionary approach to bringing about a hopeful, peaceful future.

2022 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics

Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study
For the development of transformative new frameworks for physics beyond the standard model with novel experimental signatures, including work on large extra dimensions, the Little Higgs, and more generally for new ideas connected to the origin of the electroweak scale.

2022 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science

Tony F. Heinz, Stanford University
For ground-breaking contributions to the development and application of laser spectroscopic techniques to probe surfaces, interfaces, and nanoscale materials.

2022 Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research

Nikta Fakhri, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
For groundbreaking and inspiring developments in probing and analyzing biological systems as emergent non-equilibrium systems, elucidating how molecular-scale processes form cooperative functional structures at cellular and organismal scales.

2022 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award

Michael E. Mann, The Pennsylvania State University
For distinguished contributions to the public's understanding of climate science controversies, and to how our individual and collective actions can mitigate climate change.

2022 Robert W. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators

G. William Foster, Fermilab (Retired) and US Congress
Stephen D. Holmes, Fermilab

For leadership in developing the modern accelerator complex at Fermilab, enabling the success of the Tevatron program that supports rich programs in neutrino and precision physics.

For more information on the APS Honors program, please see the prize listings page.

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