The Institute of Physics (IOP) today, Monday 4 July 2011, announces this year's award winners with the Isaac Newton Medal, IOP's international medal, going to theoretical condensed matter physicist Professor Leo Kadanoff for his outstanding contributions to physics.
Professor Kadanoff is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Chicago, a distinguished research chair at the Perimeter Institute in Canada, and a former president of the American Physical Society. During his career he has worked on areas as diverse as superconductivity, phase transitions, urban growth and planning, and disorder, turbulence and chaos in physical systems.
On receipt of the award, Professor Kadanoff said, "I feel absolutely wonderful about it. It's a recognition made all the more wonderful by hearing about the great people who received the prize before me."
This year's other awards recognise achievements in a wide range of fields, from progress in the search for a consistent quantum theory of gravity to the early career work of Dr Giovanna Tinetti characterising the molecular composition of exoplanets.
The commercial success of terahertz scanning technology is recognised with receipt of the Joule Medal by Dr Donald D Arnone from Teraview Ltd, while the team responsible for the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre Network is commended for the development of their exemplary model for university-industry interaction.
Newton Medal Winner Professor Kadanoff will be visiting London in January 2012 to deliver the Newton Lecture.
A full list of winners and short citations can be found at http://www.iop.org/about/awards/page_51355.html .