The Simon Memorial Prize is an award that honors 'distinguished work in experimental or theoretical low temperature physics'.[1][2] The prize is awarded by the Institute of Physics and is presented at the International Conference on Low Temperature Physics, which takes place every three years. The prize is named after Francis Simon, who contributed eminently to the field of low-temperature physics.[3][4] The first prize was awarded in 1959 to Heinz London.[5][6]
Not to be confused with the Robert Simon Memorial Prize awarded for dissertations from the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics of Columbia University.[7]
The following have won this prize:[8]
| Year | Recipient | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Jukka Pekola | For fundamental achievements in quantum thermodynamics, metrology and cryogenics based on nanoscale electronic devices.[1] |
| 2017 | Louis Taillefer | For pioneering transport measurements at high magnetic fields and low temperature in heavy-fermion and cuprate superconductors.[1] |
| 2014 | Peter Wölfle | For fundamental contributions to the theory of quantum transport processes in superfluid 3He, heavy fermion superconductors and disordered metals.[1] |
| 2011 | Sergey V. Iordanski | "For their calculations and predictions of the fundamental forces acting on quantised vortices in superfluids, superconductors and other ordered systems: The Iordanskii force and the Kopnin force"[9] |
| Nikolai B. Kopnin | ||
| 2008 | Yasunobu Nakamura | "For their pioneering demonstration of quantum coherent behaviour in a macroscopic object and for their subsequent explorations of quantum coherent physics in a series of novel superconducting devices." |
| Jaw-Shen Tsai | ||
| 2004 | Grigory Volovik | "for his pioneering research on the effects of symmetry in superfluids and superconductors and the extension of these ideas to quantum field theory, cosmology, quantum gravity and particle physics."[10] |
| 2001 | Giorgio Frossati | |
| 1998 | George R. Pickett | In recognition of their outstanding contributions to the field of low temperature physics.[11] |
| Anthony M. Guénault | ||
| 1995 | Alexander F. Andreev | |
| 1992 | Olivier Avenel | |
| Eric Varoquaux | ||
| 1989 | Richard A. Webb | |
| 1986 | Yuri V. Sharvin | in recognition of his outstanding experimental contributions to our understanding of the low temperature properties of metals.[12] |
| 1983 | David Olaf Edwards | for his outstanding research on liquid and solid helium and their surfaces.[13] |
| 1981 | Anthony James Leggett | for his outstanding contribution to the theory of superfluid He3.[14] |
| 1976 | David M. Lee | for their discovery in 1972 of the new low temperature phases of liquid helium-3.[15][16] |
| Douglas D. Osheroff | ||
| Robert C. Richardson | ||
| 1973 | Peter Kapitza | for distinguished work in the field of low-temperature physics.[17][18] |
| 1970 | Walther Meissner | for his work in many areas of low temperature physics and technology and, in particular, in the field of superconductivity.[19] |
| 1968 | Kurt Alfred Georg Mendelssohn | in recognition of distinguished work in superconductivity and the properties of liquid helium.[20] |
| 1965 | John Charles Wheatley | in recognition of his outstanding work on the properties of liquid helium-3 at very low temperatures.[21] |
| 1963 | Henry Edgar Hall | for their work on liquid helium II[22] |
| William Frank Vinen | ||
| 1961 | Ilya Lifshitz | for his many contributions to the understanding of the structure of the Fermi surface in metals and for his work on liquid helium.[23] |
| 1959 | Heinz London |