TheBoltzmann Medal (orBoltzmann Award) is a prize awarded tophysicists that obtain new results concerningstatistical mechanics; it is named after the celebrated physicistLudwig Boltzmann. The Boltzmann Medal is awarded once every three years by the Commission on Statistical Physics of theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Physics, during theSTATPHYS conference.[1][2]
The award consists of a gilded medal; its front carries the inscriptionLudwig Boltzmann, 1844–1906.
All the winners are influential physicists ormathematicians whose contribution to statistical physics have been relevant in the past decades. Institution with multiple recipients areSapienza University of Rome (3) andÉcole Normale Supérieure,Cornell University,University of Cambridge andPrinceton University (2).
The Medal cannot be awarded to a scientist who already has been a laureate of aNobel Prize. Three recipients of the Boltzmann Medal have gone on to win theNobel Prize in Physics:Kenneth G. Wilson (1982),Giorgio Parisi (2021) andJohn Hopfield (2024).
| Year | Laureates | Institution | For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Kenneth G. Wilson[3] | Cornell University | |
| 1977 | Ryogo Kubo[3] | University of Tokyo | "his work in the field of fluctuation theory." |
| 1980 | Rodney J. Baxter[4][5] | Australian National University | |
| 1983 | Michael E. Fisher[6] | University of Maryland, College Park | |
| 1986 | David Ruelle[7] | Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques | |
| Yakov G. Sinai[7] | Moscow State University | ||
| 1989 | Leo Kadanoff[8] | University of Chicago | |
| 1992 | Joel Lebowitz[9] | Rutgers University | "his many important contributions to equilibrium andnonequilibrium statistical mechanics and for his leadership role in the statistical physics community." |
| Giorgio Parisi[9] | Sapienza University of Rome | "his fundamental contributions to statistical physics, and particularly for his solution of themean field theory ofspin glasses." | |
| 1995 | Sam F. Edwards[10] | University of Cambridge | |
| 1998 | Elliott Lieb[11] | Princeton University | |
| Benjamin Widom[11] | Cornell University | "his illuminating studies of the statistical mechanics of fluids and fluid mixtures and their interfacial properties, especially his clear and general formulation of scaling hypotheses for theequation of state andsurface tensions of fluids near critical points." | |
| 2001 | Berni Alder[12] | University of California at Davis | "inventing the technique ofmolecular dynamics simulation and showing that with such 'computer experiments' important discoveries in the field of statistical mechanics can be made, in particular the melting/crystallization transition of hard spheres and the long-time decay ofautocorrelation functions in fluids." |
| Kyozi Kawasaki[12] | Chubu University | "contribution to our understanding of dynamic phenomena incondensed matter systems, in particular the mode-coupling theory of fluids near criticality, and nonlinear problems, such as critical phenomena in sheared fluids and phase separation kinetics." | |
| 2004 | E.G.D. Cohen[13] | Rockefeller University | "fundamental contributions to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, including the development of a theory of transport phenomena in dense gases, and the characterization of measures and fluctuations in non-equilibrium stationary states." |
| H. Eugene Stanley[13][14] | Boston University | "influential contributions to several areas of statistical physics, including the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena in spin systems and thepercolation problem, and the application of these ideas to interpret the anomalous properties of liquid water." | |
| 2007 | Kurt Binder[15] | University of Mainz | |
| Giovanni Gallavotti[16] | Sapienza University of Rome | ||
| 2010 | John Cardy[17] | University of Oxford | |
| Bernard Derrida[18] | École Normale Supérieure | ||
| 2013 | Giovanni Jona-Lasinio[19] | Sapienza University of Rome | "his seminal contributions tospontaneous symmetry breaking in particle physics and the theory of non-equilibrium fluctuations." |
| Harry Swinney[19] | University of Texas at Austin | "his ingenious and challenging experiments which have had a large impact on many areas of statistical physics." | |
| 2016 | Daan Frenkel[20] | University of Cambridge | "seminal contributions to the statistical-mechanical understanding of the kinetics, self-assembly and phase behaviour ofsoft matter." |
| Yves Pomeau[21] | University of Arizona andÉcole Normale Supérieure | "key contributions to the Statistical Physics of non-equilibrium phenomena in general. And, in particular, for developing our modern understanding of fluid mechanics, instabilities, pattern formation andchaos." | |
| 2019 | Herbert Spohn[22] | Technical University Munich | "his wide-ranging and highly influential work in non-equilibrium statistical physics."[23] |
| 2022 | Deepak Dhar[24] | Tata Institute of Fundamental Research | "his seminal contributions in the field of statistical physics, including exact solutions of self-organised criticality models, interfacial growth, universal long-time relaxation in disordered magnetic systems, exact solutions in percolation and cluster counting problems and definition of spectral dimension of fractals." |
| John J. Hopfield[24] | Princeton University | "extending the boundaries of statistical physics to encompass the phenomena of life, fromkinetic proofreading in the transmission of information at the molecular level to the dynamics ofneural networks creating a new language for thinking about computation in the brain." | |
| 2025 | Mehran Kardar[25] | MIT | "groundbreaking contributions to non-equilibrium statistical physics, especially for the celebratedKardar–Parisi–Zhang equation, the successful application of stochastic field theory to surface growth and for demonstrating the relevance of the equation to a diversity of phenomena." |
| Yoshiki Kuramoto[25] | Kyoto University | "groundbreaking work on non-equilibrium systems, especially nonlinear oscillations, synchronization, and weak turbulence. Professor Kuramoto’s work on spatially extended chaos resulting in the celebratedKuramoto–Sivashinsky equation laid the ground for further development of nonlinear science applied across a wide range of disciplines. TheKuramoto model established the scientific field of coupled oscillators, a vibrant area of nonlinear science and complex systems with profound connections to statistical physics." |