image: Kenneth Libbrecht photographs snowflakes. view more
Credit: Private
The Lennart Nilsson Award for 2010 is to be awarded to the US physicist Kenneth Libbrecht. He is awarded the prize, which is worth SEK 100,000, for his images of snowflakes – images that open our eyes to the beauty of nature. The award ceremony will take place in Stockholm's Berwald Hall on 3 November 2010 in connection with the ceremonial installation of professors at Karolinska Institutet. Lennart Nilsson himself will be in attendance.
The Lennart Nilsson Award is the world's most prestigious distinction in scientific and medical photography, and is presented annually in honour of the legendary Swedish photographer. Like Lennart Nilsson, Kenneth Libbrecht has created images that communicate advanced research to the general public.
The board's citation: "Kenneth Libbrecht's images open our eyes to the regularity and beauty of nature. With his photographs of snowflakes, he turns mathematics, physics and chemistry into images of great beauty."
Kenneth Libbrecht is a professor of physics and chairman of the Physics Department at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Born in 1958, he received his PhD in solar physics from Princeton University in 1984 and has been at Caltech ever since. His work is currently divided between the LIGO observatory for the detection of gravitational waves in space and investigations into the physics of crystal growth. In the latter area, he grows ice crystals from water vapour under controlled conditions in order to create synthetic snowflakes.
The astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler discovered back in the early 1600s that all snowflakes are hexagonal, and that each individual crystal has its own unique shape. Professor Libbrecht is attempting to understand how these shapes arise by making precise measurements of snow crystals in the lab. His goal is to map the underlying physical mechanisms, such as how temperature and electric charges affect the molecular dynamics of crystal growth.
Dr. Libbrecht also takes beautiful photographs of both natural and synthetic snowflakes, photographs that have reached a wide audience. He has created a website with information about snow and ice, and he has published seven books describing the art and science of snowflakes. Dr. Libbrecht's photographs of snowflakes have made the covers of a wide range of publications, been featured on a set of US stamps, and in November 2010 the Swedish Postal Service will issue a set of stamps featuring his images of snowflakes from Kiruna in Northern Sweden.
Prize-winner Kenneth Libbrecht will be available for interviews in Stockholm from 31 October until 4 November. Please contact Catharina Nilsson for appointments on +46 (0)70 602 70 43 or +46 (0)8 10 32 15.
Journalists may also attend the award ceremony in the Berwald Hall on Wednesday 3 November. To attend the ceremony, please send an email to the Karolinska Institutet press office in advance, pressinfo@ki.se.
Public lecture by the prizewinner: "The Secret Life of a Snowflake: A Close Look at Nature's Frozen Art", at Postmuseum, Lilla Nygatan 6, Gamla Stan, Stockholm on Thursday 4 November 2010 at 6.00 pm. Journalists and the public are warmly welcome. No advance registration is required.
Kenneth Libbrecht's snowflake website: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/
To download high-resolution press photos: http://www.lennartnilssonaward.se (username: LNA, password: spaceman). The images may be freely used in association with the award ceremony. All other use is prohibited.
The Lennart Nilsson Award was first presented in 1998 and is administered by Karolinska Institutet, whose president, Professor Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, chairs the Lennart Nilsson Award Foundation and helps to select the winners.
For further information, please contact:
Birgitta Forsell, Secretary of the Lennart Nilsson Award Foundation
Tel: +46 (0)70 493 0760
Email: birgitta@profiler.nu
Sabina Bossi, Press Officer; Karolinska Institutet
Tel: +46 (0)8 5248 6066 or +46 (0)70 614 6066
Email: sabina.bossi@ki.se
Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Its mission is to contribute to the improvement of human health through research and education. Karolinska Institutet accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden, and offers the country's broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine. More information on ki.se