Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize 2012 awards breakthroughs in superconductivity and quantum crystals
17.08.2012
The third Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize has been awarded to academician Aleksandr Fedorovich Andreev. The prize recognises Andreev’s pioneering research on the theory of superconductivity and quantum crystals.
Aleksandr F. Andreev is the Director of the Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow and the Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
– Andreev is known as a great specialist in low-temperature quantum physics. Among his main achievements is the discovery of a new type of reflection from the boundary between normal metal and a superconductor. This phenomenon is now called the Andreev reflection and it is included in textbooks on solid-state physics. The effect is acquiring an increasing number of applications in science and nanotechnology worldwide, says in his ceremonial speech the Chairperson of the Selection Committee, and the Director of O.V. Lounasmaa Laboratory in Aalto University, Pertti Hakonen.
– Andreev has also been developing the theory of quantum crystals. He has predicted a new type of oscillations of crystal surfaces: crystallization waves.
– In addition to his scientific achievements, Andreev has been active in science politics, very much like Olli V. Lounasmaa in Finland. For the physics community in Finland his influence and contacts in Russian science have been of importance in advancing Finnish–Russian science projects and other international efforts.
The Memorial Prize is a tribute to the Finnish academician and pioneer of ultra low temperature physics Olli V. Lounasmaa (1930–2002). He was an eminent experimentalist, who developed many of the techniques that are in use in the present-day advanced cryogenics. He was also the founding father of the strong research tradition in Finland both in low temperature physics and in neuroscience.
The O.V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize is granted to scientists with significant contributions in the area of low temperature physics and its applications, including neuroscience.
Past recipients are Seiji Ogawa in 2008 for neuroscience, particularly for his research on MRI brain imaging, and John Clarke in 2004 for physics and his work on ultra-sensitive SQUID magnetometers.
More information:
Professor Pertti Hakonen
pertti.hakonen [at] aalto [dot] fi
Tel: +358 50 344 2316
O.V. Lounasmaa Laboratory
Aalto University School of Science
