The Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award is awarded by the Gothenburg Physics Centre to a scientist who has made a breakthrough discovery in physics.
About Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner was a researcher in Berlin from 1907 to 1938, when she was forced to flee to Sweden, where she came to work for 20 years. As a woman she was initially not allowed in the laboratories where men worked and later she had a hard time getting a regular academic position. With these qualifications, she was still one of the leading nuclear physicists in the world. After her escape to Sweden, she was the first to understand nuclear fission when she during a stay in Kungälv Christmas in 1938 , along with her nephew Otto Frisch, could explain the results that Otto Hahn, her colleague in Berlin, sent her.
Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award
The Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award is not only about awarding well merited physicists, but also to enrich the scientific environment in Gothenburg. People belonging to either of Gothenburg Physics Center's four departments can nominate for the award.
The award was established in 2006 by the Department of Physics at University of Gothenburg and holds the honor, a monetary prize of EUR 3000 and a piece of art. In conjunction with the award ceremony, that takes place in September every year, the laureate holds a lecture in memory of the nuclear physicist Lise Meitner.
Laureate of the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award 2023
The laureate of the 2023 Lise Meitner Award is Professor Nicola Spaldin, who is awarded for "Fundamental theoretical contributions and discoveries in the field of multiferroics".
Nicola Spaldin receives Lise Meitner Award for novel research on multiferroics
Read an interview with this year's laureate.
Previous laureates
The following physicists have been awarded the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award:
- 2021 Ferenc Mezei: “Most of my research has focused on things that could be useful for others"
- 2020 Anne L'Huillier: She sheds light on what happens in a trillionth of a second
- 2019 Austen Angell
- 2018 Chandrashekhar Joshi
- 2017 Françoise Combes
- 2016 Klaus Blaum
- 2015 Ivan Schuller
- 2014 Ewine F. van Dishoeck
- 2013 Mildred Dresselhaus
- 2012 Werner Nahm
- 2010/11 Stefan W. Hell
- 2009 Renata Kallosh
- 2008 I. K. Yanson
- 2007 Pierre Ramond
- 2006 Robert Marc Friedman
The prize was not awarded in 2022, due to the corona pandemic already delaying the awarding of the 2020 and 2021 prize.
Nominations for the award
Members of the Gothenburg Physics Centre can nominate for the award. More information is found on Chalmers' Intranet: