Applied Physics B - Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics
This prize, to be awarded annually since 1998, has been established by the Editors of Applied Physics A - Materials Science and Processing and Applied Physics B - Lasers and Optics and Springer. The recipient will be a scientist who has made an outstanding and innovative contribution to the field of applied physics. The prize money of US$ 5000 is intended as an incentive for further research and development.
2023 Ronald K. Hanson
This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics has been awarded to Prof. Ronald K. Hanson for his pioneering work on laser-based diagnostic methods for combustion and propulsion and his outstanding research on modern shock tube methods for accurate determination of chemical reaction rate parameters, required for modeling combustion and propulsion. His contributions are indispensable to propulsion research and its development world-wide.
2022 Richard E. Russo
This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics has been awarded to Dr. Russo for his outstanding research in Laser Ablation, LIBS and general atomic and molecular spectroscopy. Since 1982, he has held various positions at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California, where he is currently an Affiliate Senior Scientist. Dr. Russo established and directed a fundamental research program that pioneered the development of laser ablation chemical analysis for applications in nonproliferation, safeguards, forensics, industrial manufacturing, energy and environmental monitoring.
2021 Jun Ye
This year the Julius Springer Award for Applied Physics is awarded to Professor Jun Ye for pioneering research in fundamental quantum interactions of elemental matter and light, exploiting precision optical spectroscopy and laser-lattice atomic traps.
2020 Leon Chua
This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics has been awarded to Professor Leon Chua of the University of California, Berkeley. In 1971 he postulated a passive component named the memristor (this opens in a new tab) as the 4th passive electronic device derived from fundamental considerations. This device with as predicted electrical characteristics could be experimentally found only in 2008 by a team at HP. In 2011 Leon Chua wrote an article for Applied Physics A, Resistance switching memories are memristors (this opens in a new tab) which has been downloaded over 12,000 times and received over 700 citations.
2019 Jerome Faist
This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics has been awarded to Professor Jerome Faist of ETH Zürich in Switzerland.Jerome Faist is the co-inventor of the quantum cascade laser (QCL), which employs a carefully engineered layered structure to overcome the limitations of natural material semiconductor lasers. This stacked arrangement enables the QCL to emit coherently at wavelengths ranging from the mid- to far-infrared.
2018 Guus Rijnders
This year’s Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics is awarded to Guus Rijnders of the University of Twente in the Netherlands for his research on pulsed laser deposition (PLD).Guus Rijnders investigates complex materials, particularly those used in electronic devices, such as brain-inspired electronics and sensors. He focuses on the structure-property relation of atomically engineered complex (nano)materials, especially thin-film ceramic oxides, which include ferromagnetic, ferroelectric as well as piezoelectric materials. Atomic control of such materials enables new functionalities, such as interface conductivity at oxide interfaces and multistate ferroelectrics. As one of the leaders in the field of PLD, and a driving force of interface engineering, Rijnders is one of the few major researchers who openly addresses controversial topics in the field. He has also successfully brought PLD from the laboratory to industry as the co-founder of two companies
2017 Victor Malka
This year’s Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics will be awarded to Victor Malka (École Polytechnique Palaiseau/Weizmann Institute) for his outstanding research in laser plasma acceleration.Victor Malka has pioneered the field of laser plasma acceleration (LPA). He has demonstrated that when the quiver motion of relativistic electrons is controlled, intense and bright electron and X-ray beams can be produced in a compact and elegant way. He has also promoted applications of LPA which have an impact on our society. These include advanced radiotherapy in medicine, compact gamma-ray sources for security, and coherent X-ray sources for the imaging method known as phase contrast imaging.
2016 Roland Wiesendanger and Xiang Zhang
This year’s Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics for outstanding research in materials science and its applications was awarded to Roland Wiesendanger (Hamburg) and Xiang Zhang (Berkeley, CA).Roland Wiesendanger received the award for his pioneering work on spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy and magnetic exchange force microscopy, which has made it possible to study magnetism at the level of individual atoms and investigate the atomic-scale spin structure of condensed matter. Wiesendanger is professor of experimental physics at the University of Hamburg and head of the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center Hamburg. He also heads the Collaborative Research Center “Magnetism from the Single Atom to the Nanostructure” based at the German Research Foundation.Xiang Zhang was being presented with the award for his pioneering work on optical metamaterials and nanophotonics. His seminal experimental discoveries include the far field optical super lens that breaks the fundamental diffraction limit, the optical invisibility cloak and the plasmon lasers. His work has a major impact in optical physics and technology such as optical imaging, lithography, and photovoltaics. Zhang is the Ernest S. Kuh Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the Director of the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
2015 Mikhail Lukin
This year’s Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics was awarded to Prof. Mikhail Lukin (Harvard University), one of the world’s leading scientists in quantum optics and nanophotonics.Mikhail Lukin is a pioneer in the fast-growing field that uses quantum optical processes and devices for implementing the ideas of quantum information science. His work in both theoretical and experimental physics has resulted in new methods for controlling the propagation of light fields and for manipulating individual atoms by shaping light-matter interaction at the single-particle quantum level.
2014 Harry Atwater and Albert Polman
This year’s Prize was awarded to Dr. Harry A. Atwater (Caltech Pasadena, USA) and Dr. Albert Polman (FOM Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) for their pioneering achievements in plasmonics and novel nanophotonic routes to ultrahigh-efficiency solar energy conversion.Atwater and Polman have made key contributions to the research area of nanophotonics, the science of light at the nanoscale. In particular, they have pioneered the use of metallic nanostructures that support optical resonances called surface plasmons, to control light at the nanoscale. A key novel insight of their research regards the use of optical nanostructures in photovoltaics.
2013 Sir John Pendry
Sir John had been selected for his outstanding and innovative contributions to the field of optical metamaterial science. In fact, he is one of the pioneers in that fast growing field.In addition, he introduced a simple method of creating a lens whose focus is theoretically perfect. The so-called “superlens” has revolutionized nanoscale optics.Wide public appraisal followed his work on the “Invisibility Cloak”. The idea of bending light in such a way that it could form a container around an object effectively making the object invisible. This idea has stimulated much recent work in the field of metamaterials.
2012 Thomas Elsässer and Horst Weller
For their pioneering achievements and the detailed understanding of elementary processes on the sub-nanoscale, including time-resolved ultrafast movement of atoms and charges in crystals and the precise creation of functionalized nanopartical material complexes and their applications.Presented at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, June 20, 2012
2011 Orazio Svelto
Svelto received the award for his pioneering, long-lasting and innovative work in the fields of lasers and optics. He is an internationally renowned laser and photonics scientist and one of the worldwide leaders of the scientific community in this field. The award was presented during the Laser World of Photonics Congress in Munich, Germany.
2010 Henri Lezec and Federico Capasso
Henri Lezec and Federico Capasso have received the Prize for their pioneering achievements in nanoscale physics and applications.They received their awards at the Julius Springer Forum on Applied Physics held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
2009 Motoichi Ohtsu
Prof. Ohtsu was awarded for his pioneering and seminal work on nanophotonics and near field optics as well as for the development of innovative nanophotonic devices, fabrications, and systems.The prize has been presented during the ECOC-Meeting in Vienna on September 22, 2009.
2008 Phaedon Avouris and Tony Heinz
Tony Heinz and Phaedon Avouris. The Prize was awarded at the Julius Springer Forum on Applied Physics, which took place at Harvard University on 27 September 2008.
2007 Stefan W. Hell
The 2007 Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics was awarded to Göttingen-based researcher Stefan Hell at an international meeting of the photonics industry in Munich. The prize recognizes Hell for his revolutionary discovery that resolutions far below the diffraction limit can be achieved in a fluorescence microscope using conventionally focused light.
2006 Viola Vogel
The 2006 Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics was awarded to Dr. Viola Vogel for her creative and pioneering work on bionanotechnology exploring single molecule mechanics and nanomotors for technical applications.
2005 Hidetoshi Katori
2005's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics was awarded to the Japanese scientist Hidetoshi Katori for his pioneering work on ultrahigh precision optical clocks and its enormous impact on basic research as well as on a great variety of applications.
2004 Hongjie Dai and Peidong Yang
Hongjie Dai of Stanford University and Peidong Yang of UC Berkeley for their pioneering research in the nanosciences and the applications in the field of nanotechnology derived from their findings.
2003 Anne L'Huillier and Ferenc Krausz
Anne L'Huillier, University of Lund, Sweden for the prediction of attosecond pulses.Ferenc Krausz, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria for the experimental generation of these extremely short light pulses.
2002 Cees Dekker
Cees Dekker, Delft Technical University for the discovery of the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes and for pioneering work on their application in single-molecule electronic devices.
2001 Eli Yablonovitch
Eli Yablonovitch, UCLA for his pioneering work on Photonic Crystals.
2000 Stan Williams and James R. Heath
Stan Williams, Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA and James R. Heath, ULCA for their outstanding achievements in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology and their applications.
1999 Shuji Nakamura
Shuji Nakamura, Nichia Chemical Industries, Tokushima, Japan for his invention of the blue laser diode.
1998 Peter Fromherz
Peter Fromherz, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany for the invention of Neuron–Silicon Junctions.