French physicist Prof. Antoine Georges today received the „Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics 2014”, jointly awarded by the Joachim Herz Stiftung and The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI) for his outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, in particular for the development of novel methods to describe strongly correlated systems. Prof. Georges’ theories predict how the interaction of electrons influences the properties of materials, for example their electric conductivity.
Credit: Jean-Francois Dars, CNRS
Today the Joachim Herz Stiftung and the Federal Cluster of Excellence “The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging” (CUI) jointly awarded the „Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics 2014 to Prof. Antoine Georges, physicist at the Collège de France and the École Polytechnique in Paris, as well as the University of Geneva. The award includes 40,000 Euro and was presented during the annual CUI-Symposium on the Science Campus Hamburg Bahrenfeld.
“The Prize honors outstanding research and promotes communication and networking among researchers of different countries, generations and research fields”, states Petra Herz, Chairwoman of the Executive Board of the Joachim Herz Stiftung. Prof. Georges is especially looking forward to his teaching and research stay in Hamburg: “The discussion and cooperation with researchers and students from different fields open up new and broader perspectives on my work.” It is an important aim of the internationally outstanding research cluster CUI to enable students and PhD students to get in contact with leading scientist.
At the intersection of theoretical physics and material science
The main focus of Prof. Georges‘ work has been on the physics of materials with strong interactions between electrons. These materials possess remarkable electronic properties. Georges’ contributions to this field deepened our understanding of these materials and our ability to explain, calculate and predict their physical properties. His research thus contributed insights at the intersection of condensed-matter physics and material sciences: New materials with correlated electrons, for instance, could be used in sensors, switches or other novel electronic devices.
The Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics was established in 2010 in the Federal State Cluster of Excellence “Frontiers in Quantum Photon Science”, which the Joachim Herz Stiftung supported. Since 2013 the Joachim Herz Stiftung awards the Prize jointly with The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI), a Federal Cluster of Excellence at Universität Hamburg.
A short video of last years’ award ceremony and the lecture given by the 2013 award recipient Prof. Chris H. Greene of Purdue University is available on the Joachim Herz Stiftung youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/JoachimHerzStiftung. Footage of the award ceremony 2014 will be uploaded soon.
Also view Prof. Georges’ work and previous awardees. Credit front-page photo: Joachim Herz Stiftung, Andreas Klinberg.