Beenakker receives Akzo Nobel Science Award

Theoretical physicist Prof. Carlo Beenakker has been awarded the Akzo Nobel Science Award for his pioneering work in the field of nanoscience, the world where atoms and molecules can no longer be distinguished. (Here is the press release.)

Fundamental physical problems
The Akzo Nobel Science Award will be officially presented to Beenakker on 30 November by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities in Haarlem. Carlo Beenakker is a member of the Lorentz Institute of Leiden University.

Beenakker's research focuses on the fundamental physical problems which occur when an object of macroscopic proportions is miniaturised to nanometer scale.  The award, which includes a prize of 50,000 euro, will this year be awarded for the 36th time. 

Eminent international reputation
‘Professor Beenakker is a widely respected and influential theoretical physicist; his pioneering research has earned him an eminent international reputation,' according to Maarten van Veen, Chairman of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, the organisation which selects the winner.  'He has certainly earned this award.  At 46, he is one of the top theoretical physicists of the modern day.'

Explain and predict
In the past twenty years Beenakker has demonstrated how electrical conduction in nanostructures can be explained and predicted, with the objective of developing new concepts and new possibilities for the computer of the future. Beenakker's name is firmly linked with the discovery that random matrix theory can be used to describe the quantum physical properties of electrons at nanometer scale.  

Respected and influential
‘We are particularly proud that the prize is this year being awarded to such a  widely respected and influential scientist,' said Hans Wijers, Chairman of the Board of Akzo Nobel. ‘We wish Professor Beenakker every success in the future with continuing his outstanding scientific research and with his dedication to obtaining public appreciation for science.'

The Akzo Nobel Science Award is awarded annually alternatively in the Netherlands and Sweden as a mark of recognition for pioneering interdisciplinary research. 

(3 October 2006/DH)