Klopsteg Memorial Award

The Klopsteg Memorial Award recognizes outstanding communication of contemporary physics to the general public.

The Klopsteg Memorial Award recipient makes a major presentation at an AAPT Summer Meeting on a topic of current significance suitable for non-specialists. A monetary award, an Award Certificate, and travel expenses to the meeting are presented to the recipient.

Nomination Form

Award Winners

• 2008  Michio Kaku, City University of New York, New York, NY, Address: "Physics of the Impossible"
• 2007  Neil de Grasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, New York, Address: "Adventures in Science Illiteracy"
• 2006  Lisa Randall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Address: "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions"
• 2005  Wendy Freedman, Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA, Address: "The Accelerating Universe"
• 2004  Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Address: "Quantum Experiments: From Philosophical Curiosity to a New Technology"
• 2003   Sylvester Gates, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Address: "Why Einstein Would Love Spaghetti in Fundamental Physics"
• 2002   Barry C. Barish, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, Address: "Catching the Waves with LIGO"
• 2001   Virginia Trimble, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, Address: "Cosmology: Man's Place in the Universe"
• 2000   Terrence P. Walker, The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH, Address: "The Big Bang: Seeing Back to the Beginning"
• 1999   Michael S. Turner, University of Chicago, Address: "Cosmology: From Quantum Fluctuations to the Expanding Universe"
• 1998   Sidney R. Nagel, The James Franck Institute, Address: "Physics at the Breakfast Table - Or Waking Up to Physics"
• 1997   Max Dresden, Stanford University and Stanford Linear Accelerator, Address: "Scales, Macroscopic, Microscopic, Mesoscopic: Their Autonomy and Interrelation"
• 1996   Margaret Geller, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Optical Infrared Astronomy Division
• 1995   Peter Franken, University of Arizona, Address: "Municipal Waste, Recycling, and Nuclear Garbage"
• 1994   David Mermin, Cornell University, Address: "More Quantum Magic"
• 1993   Charles P. Bean, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, Address: "An Invitation to Table-Top Physics Inside and in the Open Air"
• 1992   Gabriel Wienreich, University of Michigan at Anne Arbor, Address: "What Science Knows about Violins And What It Doesn't Know," Am. J. Phys. 61, 1067 (1993).
• 1991   Paul K. Hansman, University of California at Santa Barbara, Address: "Seeing Atoms with the New Generation of Microscopes," Am. J. Phys. 59, 1067 (1991).