Department News Archive: Faculty Awards
Prof. Lene Hau has been awarded the George Ledlie Prize for her "path-breaking" experiments with stopping and reviving light pulses (Sept. 2008).
Professors Hongkun Park and Aravinthan Samuel are to receive National Institutes of Health Director's 2008 Pioneer Awards.
Prof. Cumrun Vafa was awarded the 2008 Dirac medal of the ICTP.
Prof. Eric Mazur was elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen).
Prof. Lisa Randall was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences on April 29, 2008.
Prof. Gerald Holton will be awarded the Order of Merit by the Republic of Austria (Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst, I. Klasse) June 23, 2008.
Prof. Eric Mazur has been elected a fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 2008, recognition of his "pioneering contributions to optical waveguiding at the nanoscale level and to understanding the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with materials." He also received OSA's Esther Hoffman Beller Medal for "developing and globally disseminating the innovative teaching methodology now known as "Peer Instruction", which promotes deeper understanding of the fundamentals of science".
The American Association of Physics Teachers awarded Prof. Mazur the Robert A. Millikan Medal (2008).
Prof. Nima Arkani-Hamed won the 2008 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in the Physical Sciences.
Prof. Lene Hau has been elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1/16/2008).
Professors Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa are co-recipients of the American Mathematical Society's 2008 Leonard Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics.
Prof. Bertrand Halperin has been awarded the Dannie Heineman prize by the Akadamie des Wissenschaften of Göttingen "for [his] numerous outstanding contributions to statistical physics and condensed matter theory, especially dynamical critical phenomena and low dimensional electronic properties".
Prof. Gerald Holton has been awarded the Abraham Pais Prize by the American Physical Society in recognition of his "outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics".
Prof. Christopher Stubbs, a member of the High-z Supernova Search team lead by Brian Schmidt (Australian National University), was one of the recipients of the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for the discovery that the universe's expansion is accelerating. The team received the award jointly with the Supernova Cosmology Project, lead by Saul Perlmutter of UC Berkeley, at a ceremony in Cambridge (UK) on Sept. 7, 2007.
Prof. Richard Wilson received the 2007 Dixy Lee Ray Award for "significant contributions to the scientific and engineering foundation of environmental protection, particularly methodology of risk assessment, risk assessment of specific pollutants, cancer assessment, risk assessment of nuclear power including nuclear waste, and ethics in environmental science and engineering".
Prof. Melissa Franklin received the Spark Award. The award was created this year by student group Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe (WISHR) to recognize women who have inspired the next generation of women in science.
Prof. Richard Wilson has been awarded the Premio Ettore Majorana Erice Scienza per la Pace for his "long-lasting involvement in 'The Spirit of Erice' and its promotion to people of different culture and various civilizations with remarkble success, thus allowing the new generations to envision the future with hope and confidence". The award ceremony took place on Dec. 21, 2006, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican.
Prof. Lisa Randall has been awarded the 2007 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize . The prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to physics by a single individual who also has exceptional skills in lecturing to diverse audiences.
Prof. Matias Zaldarriaga has been awarded a grant by the MacArthur Foundation . According to the Foundation's President Jonathan Fanton, "The annual announcement of the MacArthur Fellows is a special opportunity to celebrate the creative individual in our midst" .
Prof. Jenny Hoffman received a PECASE award through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under the Department of Defense for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of electronic properties of high temperature superconductors, for making the first measurements to reveal the unusual electronic states in the vortex cores of these materials, and for exceptional teaching of undergraduate students".
Prof. Aravinthan Samuel received a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for "developing experimental techniques at the interface of physics and biology to study neural systems in the nematode and other model organisms, and for promoting the use of biophysical techniques in the education and training of students ". PECASE, established in 1996, honors the most promising young researchers in their field.
Prof. Eric Heller has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (April, 2006)
Prof. Norman Ramsey receives the honorary Doctor of Science degree from Harvard. Read the Harvard Gazette article (May 23, 2006)
Prof. Aravinthan Samuel received the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for "developing experimental techniques at the interface of physics and biology to study neural systems in the nematode and other model organisms, and for promoting the use of biophysical techniques in the education and training of students ". PECASE, established in 1996, honors the most promising young researchers in their field.
Prof. Jenny Hoffman also received a 2005 PECASE award through the Air Force Office of Scienctific Research under the Department of Defense for "outstanding contributions to the understanding of electronic properties of high temperature superconductors, for making the first measurements to reveal the unusual electronic states in the vortex cores of these materials, and for exceptional teaching of undergraduate students".
Prof. Eric Heller has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in April, 2006.
Prof. Roy
J. Glauber has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize
in Physics "for his contribution to the quantum theory
of optical coherence." He shares this prize with
John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hansch.
Prof. Matias Zaldarriaga has been awarded the Gribov Medal from the European Physical Society for his theoretical contributions to cosmology that are important for theories of fundamental interactions. His contributions include devising a new method for calculating fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) -- the radiation left over from the Big Bang -- which has helped put constraints on various cosmological models. He has also worked on the polarization of the CMB and gravitational lensing.
Prof. Howard Georgi named Harvard College Professor in recognition of excellence in teaching, research, and publication. Read the Gazette story.
Prof. Cumrun Vafa has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read more.
Prof. Michael Tinkham has received the Dr. Fred E. Saalfeld award from the Department of the Navy. The award is established to recognize a Naval research scientist for extraordinary lifetime achievements in science that contributed substantially to the knowledge and capabilities of the Department of the Navy , Department of Defense and the Nation.
Prof. Gerald Gabrielse has received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for a project entitled "Fundamental Studies of Cold Antiprotons and Antihydrogen". For more information on the award, please go to the website: http://www.avh.de/en/programme/preise/pt.htm .
Professors David R. Liu and Xiaowei Zhuang are among 43 young researchers nationwide named new investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Established in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist, the Chevy Chase, Md.-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute is dedicated to discovering and disseminating new knowledge in the basic life sciences.
Senior Lecturer Ronald Walsworth has been awarded the 2005 Francis M. Pipkin Award by the American Physical Society. The citation reads: "For broad investigation in precision measurements involving masers; in particular, for using hydrogen and noble-gas masers in achieving record sensitivities to violations of Lorentz and CPT symmetry in neutrons and protons, and for innovative applications of masers to imaging".
Prof. Eric J. Heller received the 2005 American Chemical Society Award in Theoretical Chemistry. The award recognizes innovative research in theoretical chemistry that either advances theoretical methodology or contributes to new discoveries about chemical systems.
Prof. Gerald Gabrielse received the George Ledlie Prize . Read the story in the Harvard Gazette , 4/22/04.
Prof. David Nelson and Tom Lubensky (University of Pennsylvania) were awarded the 2004 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize by the American Physical Society "For seminal contributions to the theory of condensed matter systems including the prediction and elucidation of the properties of new, partially ordered phases of complex materials."
Professor Prof. Gerald Gabrielse, George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics, was awarded the George Ledlie prize. Dean Kirby's citation reads for..."creativity and leadership in creating antihydrogen atoms and in exploring whether the laws of physics apply the same or differently to atoms and anti-atoms." He also acknowledged the powerful advances in technology associated with the investigations. For more information see the story in the Harvard Gazette .
Xiaowei Zhuang, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics was awarded a 2003 MacArthur fellowship. See story in the Harvard Gazette .
Prof. Lene Hau received the 2003 Richtmyer Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers. Professor Hau will present an address at the AAPT annual meeting January 24-28 in Miami Beach, Florida, where a $3,000 award and a certificate will be presented.
Prof.Mara Prentiss was elected to Fellowship in the American Physical Society at the November 2003 meeting: "For her pioneering work in manipulating matter with electromagnetic fields, including pioneering atom lithography and chip based atom optics." Election to Fellowship in the American Physical Society is limited to no more than one half of one percent of the membership.
Prof. David Nelson shared the 2003 Bardeen Prize with A. I. Larkin and Valerii Vinokur for "work on the Theory of Vortex Matter." This prize is "awarded for theoretical works which have provided significant insights on the nature of Superconductivity and have led to verifiable predictions." It will be awarded at the 7th International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity and High Temperature Superconductors in Rio de Janeiro in late May.
Prof. Nima Arkani-Hamed received the 2003 Gribov Medal from the European Physical Society, "For his original approaches to hierarchy problems in the theories of fundamental interactions. In particular for exploring the possibility of large extra dimensions where only gravity can propagate." The award is given every two years to honor a young theoretical physicist.
Prof. Bert Halperin was awarded the 2002/03 Wolf Prize for his work on two-dimensional melting, disordered systems, and strongly interacting electrons. Professor Halperin will share the award with Professor Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The prize was awarded May 11, 2003 in Jerusalem.
Prof. Lisa Randall won the Premio Caterina Tomassoni e Felice Pietro Chisesi Award, which waspresented April 3, 2003, at the University of Rome "La Sapienza".
Professor Eric
J. Heller received the 2003 Joseph O. Hirschfelder
Award from the University of Wisconsin, one of the
largest prizes in the field of theoretical chemistry.
Professor Heller gave three lectures in Madison,
10/13-10/15:
"Making Waves: From Quantum Corrals to Concert Halls"
"Time-Dependent Methods in Spectroscopy"
"The Many Faces of Tunneling"
Prof. Gerald Gabrielse won the 2002 Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics for pioneering work in trapping, cooling, and precision measurements of the properties of matter and antimatter in ion traps.
Prof. Lene Hau won
a MacArthur Fellowship (Oct. 24, 2002).
back
to the Top
back
to News and Updates
go
to News Archive