Thomas Ebbesen, laureate of Kavli Prize

Thomas Ebbesen, USIAS Chair of Physical Chemistry, Professor at the Institute of Supramolecular Engeneering and Sciences (ISIS) and director of USIAS is laureate of the Kavli Prize for his work on extraordinary optic transmission. This work has demonstrated that light can interact with nanostructures smaller than its wavelength. This discovery raise fundamental questions in many fields from biology to opto-electronic. The award ceremony will take place on 9 September in Oslo in the presence of the Kind of Norway.

The Kavli Prize is the highest award in the field of nanosciences. It is the first time that a French scholar is laureate of this prize. Thomas Ebbesen shares the prize with Stefan W. Hell (Max Planck Institute, Germany) and Sir John B. Pendry (Imperial College, London).

Fred Kavli was a businessman who established the Kavli Foundation to support fundamental research that he thought essential for the wellbeing of humanity. He wished to create new scientific prizes equivalent to the Nobel Prize, for research fields at the boundaries of science : he greatest physical dimensions of space and time (astrophysique), the science of the smallest dimensions of systems of atoms and molecules (nanoscience), and the science of the most complex systems (neuroscience).

The Kavli Prize was created in 2005 jointly with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the ministry of education and the Kavli Foundation. The prize is awarded every two years to acknowledge exceptionnal scientific work. More information.