SAS Professor Wins 2013 Physics Frontiers Prize

The Fundamental Physics Prize Selection Committee has announced that Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of Physics Charles Kane, Laurens Molenkamp of the University of Wuerzburg in Germany, and Shoucheng Zhang of Stanford have been named laureates of the 2013 Physics Frontier Prize. The group was recognized for its work on the theoretical prediction and experimental discovery of topological insulators. As laureates, they are eligible for the 2013 Fundamental Physics Prize of $3 million, to be announced on March 20, 2013 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. 

“Choosing this year’s recipients from such a large pool of spectacular nominations was a very difficult task,” said Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study, a member of the Selection Committee. “The selected physicists have done transformative work spanning a wide range of areas in fundamental physics.”

Earlier this year, Kane became the first Penn professor to receive the Dirac Medal and Prize, given annually by the Abdus Salem International Centre for Theoretical Physics to scientists who have made significant contributions to theoretical physics. Also in 2012, he won the Oliver Buckley Prize, awarded for outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics, and received a five-year, $500,000 grant from the Simons Foundation. Likened to the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Grants,” the monetary prize has no parameters dictating its use; rather, it is intended to enable the recipient to pursue long-term studies of fundamental questions in theoretical fields.

Kane received the Condensed Matter Europhysics Prize in 2010, has been a fellow of the American Physical Society since 2006 and was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow between 1985 and 1988. He joined Penn’s faculty in 1991.

The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation established by the Milner Foundation and dedicated to advancing our knowledge of the universe at the deepest level by awarding annual prizes for scientific breakthroughs, as well as communicating the excitement of fundamental physics to the public.  The Fundamental Physics Prize Selection Committee is made up of prior recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize.