All four prizewinners of the Henri Poincaré Prize 2009 are Springer authors and editors. The prestigious prize for outstanding contributions in mathematical physics was awarded at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics which took place from 3 – 8 August 2009 in Prague. The winners are Jürg Fröhlich, Robert Seiringer, Yakov G. Sinai and Cédric Villani.
Jürg Fröhlich won the prize for "for his fundamental contributions to quantum field theory and statistical mechanics which led to major advances in our understanding of physical systems with many degrees of freedom." Jürg Fröhlich is a member of the editorial board of the Springer journal Mathematical Physics, Analysis and Geometry, an advisory editor to the journal Letters in Mathematical Physics, and series editor of the book series Mathematical Physics. Most notably, his work has been published in the book A Journey through Statistical Physics: Selecta of Jürg Fröhlich. He is also co-author of the book Quantum Groups, Quantum Categories and Quantum Field Theory.
Robert Seiringer was honored "for his major contributions to the mathematical analysis of low temperature condensed matter systems, in particular for his work on Bose condensation and the Gross-Pitaevskii equation." Robert Seiringer is associate editor for the journal Letters in Mathematical Physics and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Statistical Physics. He is also a co-author of the book The Mathematics of the Bose Gas and its Condensation published by Birkhäuser.
Yakov G. Sinai was singled out "for his ground-breaking works concerning dynamical entropy, ergodic theory, chaotic dynamical systems, microscopic theory of phase transitions, and time evolution in statistical mechanics." Yakov Sinai has published several books with Springer: as co-author, Theory of Probability and Random Processes, SPDE in Hydrodynamics, and as co-editor, Mathematical Events of the Twentieth Century. He is also co-editor of the series Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Statistical Physics.
Cédric Villani received the prize "for his innovative work on kinetic theory and optimal transport with applications to dissipative physical systems and Riemannian geometry." Cedric Villani is an editor of the Journal of Statistical Physics, and of the journal Inventiones mathematicae. He also co-edits the series Mathématiques et Applications. He wrote the book Optimal Transport: Old and New as well as Entropy Methods for the Boltzmann Equation together with F. Rezakhanlou.
The Henri Poincaré Prize was created in 1997 to recognize outstanding contributions in mathematical physics and contributions which lay the groundwork for novel developments in this broad field. The Prize is also created to recognize and support young people of exceptional promise who have already made outstanding contributions to the field of mathematical physics. The prize is awarded every three years at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics.