The Onsager Medal (''Onsagermedaljen'') is a scholastic presentation awarded to researchers in one or more subject areas of
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
,
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
or
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
. The medal is awarded in memory of
Lars Onsager
Lars Onsager (November 27, 1903 – October 5, 1976) was a Norwegian American physical chemist and theoretical physicist. He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemist ...
, who received
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...
in 1968. The medal, designed by Harald Wårvik, commemorates the efforts of a single individual as chosen by the Onsager committee at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...
(NTNU).
The professorship awardee is expected to spend 3–6 months working at NTNU. The lectureship awardee will give a lecture at the university.
Professorship
* 1993
George Stell,
State University of New York, Stony Brook (statistical physics)
* 1994
Vladisav Borisovic Lazarev,
Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Moscow (chemistry)
* 1995
F. W. Gehring,
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
(mathematics)
* 1996
J. M. J. van Leeuwen,
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...
(statistical physics)
* 1997
Dick Bedeaux,
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...
(physical chemistry)
* 1998
V. S. Varadarajan,
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
(mathematics)
* 1999
Arieh Iserles,
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
(mathematics)
* 2000
V. Havin,
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
(mathematics)
* 2001
David A. Brant,
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
(chemistry)
* 2002
John S. Newman, Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
(chemical engineering)
* 2003
Miguel Rubí Capaceti, Facultat de Fisica, Departament Fisica Fonamental,
Universitat de Barcelona
The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public university, public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. Wi ...
, Spain (chemistry)
* 2004
George Batrouni,
University of Nice Sophia Antipolis
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
, France (physics)
* 2005
Alexander Volberg,
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
(mathematics)
* 2006
John R. Klauder, Departments of Physics and Mathematics,
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
(physics and mathematics)
* 2007
Matthieu H. Ernst, Institute for Theoretical Physics,
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...
, The Netherlands (physics)
* 2008
Peter S. Riseborough, Department of Physics,
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
, Philadelphia, USA (physics)
* 2009
Gerrit Ernst-Wilhelm Bauer, Kavli Institute of NanoScience,
Delft University of Technology
The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...
, The Netherlands (physics)
* 2010
Elisabeth Bouchaud, Head of the Division of Physics and Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces at CEA-SACLAY,
Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette (, "Gif-on- Yvette") is a commune in southwestern Île-de-France, France. It is located in the Vallée de Chevreuse, from the centre of Paris (at Notre-Dame), in the Essonne department on the departmental border with Yvelin ...
, France (physics)
* 2011
George W. Scherer, W. L. Knapp Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering,
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
* 2012
Richard Spontak, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering,
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...
* 2013
Reinout Quispel,
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...
,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
* 2014
Xiang-Yu Zhou,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...
,
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
* 2015
Matthias Eschrig,
Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...
,
UK
* 2016
Jan Vermant,
ETH Zürich
ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ra ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
* 2017
Jian-Min Zuo,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
* 2018 Eero Saksman,
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...
,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
* 2019
Daan Frenkel
Daan Frenkel One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 1948, Amsterdam) is a Dutch Computational physics, computational physicist in the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridg ...
,
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
* 2020 Lorenz T. Biegler,
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
, United States
Lectureship
* 1993
M. E. Fisher,
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
(statistical physics)
* 1994
Benjamin Widom
Benjamin Widom (October 13, 1927 – January 23, 2025) was an American physical chemist. He was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. His research interests included physical chemistry and statistical mechanics. In 199 ...
,
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
(statistical physics and physical chemistry)
* 1995
Werner Ebeling,
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.
The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
(physical chemistry)
* 1996
Russell J. Donnelly,
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
(superfluids)
* 1997
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (; 24 October 1932 – 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 1991.
Education and early life
He was born in Paris, France, and was home-schooled to the age of 12. By the age of ...
,
Collège de France
The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...
(physics)
* 1998
Elliott H. Lieb
Elliott Hershel Lieb (born July 31, 1932) is an American mathematical physicist. He is a professor of mathematics and physics at Princeton University. Lieb's works pertain to quantum and classical many-body problem, atomic structure, the sta ...
,
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
(physics and mathematics)
* 1999
Henk N. W. Lekkerkerker,
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...
, Utrecht (colloid chemistry)
* 2000
Vaughan Jones
Sir Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones (31 December 19526 September 2020) was a New Zealand mathematician known for his work on von Neumann algebras and knot polynomials. He was awarded a Fields Medal in 1990.
Early life
Jones was born in Gisbo ...
, University of California, Los Angeles (mathematics)
* 2001
Sir Michael Berry,
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
(mathematical physics)
* 2002
Frank H. Stillinger, Department of Chemistry,
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
(chemistry)
* 2003
Ivar Giaever
Ivar Giaever (, ; born April 5, 1929) is a Norwegian-American solid-state and biophysicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson. One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Esaki and Giaever "for the ...
, Physics Department,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...
(physics)
* 2004
Leo Kadanoff
Leo Philip Kadanoff (January 14, 1937 – October 26, 2015) was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics (emeritus from 2004) at the University of Chicago and a former president of the American Physical Society (APS). He contributed t ...
, Department of Physics and Mathematics,
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
(physics and mathematics)
* 2005
Sir Brian Pippard,
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...
, University of Cambridge (physics)
* 2006
Rodney J. Baxter FRS FAA, Centre for Mathematics and Its Applications, Mathematical Sciences Institute,
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
(physics and mathematics)
* 2007
Robert B. Laughlin
Robert Betts Laughlin (born November 1, 1950) is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Along with Horst L. Störmer of Columbia University and Daniel C. Tsui of Princeton Universi ...
, Department of Physics, Stanford University (physics)
* 2008
Terence Tao
Terence Chi-Shen Tao (; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician, Fields medalist, and professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in the Co ...
, Department of Mathematics,
University of California at Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...
(mathematics)
* 2009
Bertrand I. Halperin, Department of Physics,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
(physics)
* 2010
Ingrid Daubechies
Baroness Ingrid Daubechies ( ; ; born 17 August 1954) is a Belgian-American physicist and mathematician. She is best known for her work with wavelets in image compression.
Daubechies is recognized for her study of the mathematical methods that ...
, Department of Mathematics, Princeton University (mathematics)
* 2011
Peter Hänggi, Institut für Physik,
Universität Augsburg, Germany
* 2012
Arnold J. Levine
Arnold Jay Levine (born 1939) is an American molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1998 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry and was the first recipient of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research in ...
, Institute for Advance Study,
Princeton
Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
* 2013
Stanislav Smirnov,
Université de Genève
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology unti ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
* 2014 Sir
Konstantin Novoselov
Sir Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov ( rus, Константи́н Серге́евич Новосёлов,
p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ nəvɐˈsʲɵləf; born 1974) is a Russian–British physicist. His work on graphene ...
,
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
,
UK
* 2015
Jean-Marie Lehn
Jean-Marie Lehn (born 30 September 1939) is a French chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen in 1987 for his synthesis of cryptands. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramo ...
,
Collège de France
The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...
and
Laboratoire de Chimie Supramoléculaire,
Strasbourg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
* 2016
Stefan Hell,
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
The Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (), also known as the Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute (), was a research institute of the Max Planck Society, located in Göttingen, Germany. On January 1, 2022, the institute merged with ...
,
Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
* 2017
May-Britt Moser
May-Britt Moser (born 1963) is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She and her former husband, Edvard Moser, shared half of ...
and
Edvard Moser
Edvard Ingjald Moser () is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.
He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 with long-term col ...
,
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience,
NTNU,
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
* 2018
Yves Meyer,
École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay
The (; also ENS Paris-Saclay or Paris-Saclay), formerly ENS Cachan, is a grande école and a constituent member of Paris-Saclay University. It was established in 1892. It is located in Gif-sur-Yvette within the Essonne department near Paris ...
* 2019
Lene Vestergaard Hau, Harvard University
* 2020
Emmanuelle Charpentier
Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier (; born 11 December 1968) is a French professor and researcher in microbiology, genetics, and biochemistry. As of 2015, she has been a director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. In 2018, sh ...
, Max Planck Unit for Science of Pathogens, Germany
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Lars Onsager LectureThe Lars Onsager Professorship
Norwegian science and technology awards
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Academic awards