The Fritz London Memorial Prize Selection Committee is proud to announce the winners of this year’s Fritz London Memorial Prize. The award is widely recognized as the highest international honor in low-temperature physics.
The 2025 awardees are (in alphabetical order):
Robert Hallock:
“For his many innovative achievements in the physics of liquid helium films and his pioneering work on supertransport in solid helium-4, which includes the paradigm-changing discovery of giant isochoric compressibility.”
John Saunders:
“In recognition of his pioneering research on topological and strongly correlated quantum fluids and solids in reduced dimensions, enabled by his development of cryogenic and measurement technology to open research opportunities spanning quantum materials to fundamental physics.”
Ali Yazdani:
“For cutting-edge discoveries of the interplay between correlated phases and superconductivity in cuprates, heavy fermion systems, and graphene using advanced low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy.”
Established in 1957 by John Bardeen, the prize commemorates Fritz London, a distinguished Duke faculty member known for his pioneering contributions to theoretical chemistry, physics, and the philosophy of science. It is presented every three years on the opening day of the International Conference on Low Temperature Physics. In 2025, the prizes will be awarded during the LT-30, taking place on August 7-13.
Fritz London, born in 1900 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), was an internationally recognized theorist whose career was disrupted by the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933. After fleeing Germany, he worked in England and France before immigrating to the United States in 1939, where he joined Duke University and later became the James B. Duke Professor of Physics and Chemistry. To honor his legacy, Duke hosts an annual endowed Fritz London Memorial Lecture, featuring distinguished physicists and chemists.
Professor Adiel (Ady) Stern is awarded the 2025 Simon Memorial Prize for original and influential theoretical work on the Quantum Hall Effect, quantum statistics of emerging quasi-particles, topological order and decoherence in condensed matter systems at low temperatures.
Born in 1960, Stern completed a BSc in Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics at Tel-Aviv University. Remaining at Tel-Aviv as a graduate student, he carried out elegant work elucidating the role of environmental decoherence in mesoscopic systems and obtained his PhD in 1993. Stern was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows for three years, before joining the Weizmann Institute of Science as a faculty member in 1995. He remains at the Weizmann Institute today, where he has been a full professor of physics in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics since 2007. His work, exploring themes such as the impact of electron-electron interactions in low-dimensional systems and manifestations of non-Abelian quasiparticles, has significantly advanced our understanding of condensed matter systems at low temperatures. His theoretical insights, developed within a wide range of collaborations, have proved extremely fruitful, stimulating the development of new avenues of both experimental and theoretical investigation. Stern is also an accomplished and enthusiastic communicator of science to a broad range of audiences. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the Academy of Science and Humanities (Israel).
The prize presentation will take place on the opening day of the 30th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics.
The Simon Memorial Prize, established in 1957, commemorates the outstanding contributions to science of Sir Francis Simon. It is awarded for distinguished work in experimental or theoretical low temperature physics. For further details see https://www.iop.org/physics-community/special-interest-groups/low-temperature-group/simon-memorial-prize
The Simon Memorial Prize is supported financially by Oxford Instruments and administered by the Low Temperature Group of the Institute of Physics
This international prize is awarded once every three years, and it is intended to recognize outstanding contributions to low temperature physics and related fields. The Prize, founded in 2004, is a tribute to the founder of strong Finnish research tradition both in low temperature physics and neuroscience.
Background information and previous Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize winners can be found on https://www.aalto.fi/en/ovl-memorial-prize. Since 2016, the Prize has been sponsored by Bluefors, a spin-out of the Low Temperature Laboratory that was established by Lounasmaa in 1965.
The members of the 2025 Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize committee are: Mika Sillanpää (chair, Aalto University), Anssi Salmela (Bluefors), Bill Halperin (Northwestern University), Christian Enss (Heidelberg University), Hervé Courtois (Université Grenoble Alpes), Hiroshi Fukuyama (The University of Tokyo), Jeevak Parpia (Cornell University), and Silke Bühler-Paschen (Vienna University of Technology).
Nominations and supporting letters should be sent to:
Prof. Mika Sillanpää
mika.sillanpaa@aalto.fi
The deadline for the receipt of nomination material is January 15, 2025. The prize is presented at the LT30 conference.
The Commission on Low Temperature Physics (C5) of IUPAP solicits nominations of outstanding experimental or theoretical physicists for its 2025 Early Career Scientist Prize. https://iupap.org/awards/young-scientist-prizes/#:~:text=Early%20Career%20Scientist%20(former%20Young%20Scientist)
Prizes will be presented at the 30th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics (LT30), Bilbao, Spain, August 7-13, 2025. https://www.lt30.es
The Prize includes a medal, certificate, monetary award, and an invited presentation at LT30.
Nominees are expected to have made original and outstanding contributions to the field of low temperature physics. If the work was performed in collaboration, the leading personal contribution of the nominee to the achievements should be clearly identifiable. Successful candidates will have up to 8 years of research experience following the award of their PhD (excluding career interruptions) at the deadline for submission of nominations, 15 January 2025.
Nominations should consist of a single pdf file, named after the nominee, comprising: a nomination letter which includes a suggested citation of less than 20 words; two additional supporting letters from experts without a conflict of interest (i.e. doctoral or postdoctoral mentor, or close collaborator) which detail the nominee’s qualifications and scientific achievements; a CV; and a list of publications. Nominations should be mailed to both the C5 commission chair, Naoto Nagaosa: nagaosa@riken.jp, and Secretary Richard Haley: r.haley@lancaster.ac.uk,before 15 January 2025 23:59 UTC.
IUPAP C5 welcomes applications from women and from underrepresented groups in the field of low temperature physics.
