2008 ICTP Prize
in honour of Pierre Gilles De Gennes

We take pleasure in announcing that the 2008 ICTP Prize
will be awarded jointly to

Professor Abhishek Dhar
Theoretical Physics Group
Raman Research Institute
Bangalore, India

and

Professor Zhong Fang
Center for Quantum Simulation Sciences
Institute of Physics
Beijing, China


Abhishek Dhar is Associate Professor at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. He has made outstanding contributions to non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of transport and fluctuation phenomena, classical as well as quantum mechanical. His exact and insightful results have clarified subtle issues, and about heat conduction.

Zhong Fang is Professor and Director of the Center for Quantum Simulation Sciences, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is is being recognized for his theoretical and computational work on the origin of anomalous understanding of spin and orbital physics in transition metal oxides.

Pierre Gilles De Gennes (1932-2007) was one of the most influential theoretical physicists of his time. His work spanned a wide variety of subjects in condensed matter theory and statistical physics, and has pushed forward the frontiers of phenomena such as liquid crystals and polymer physics. He was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics "for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymer".

2008 ICTP Prize Committee
P.Creminelli
L.Göttsche
F.Kucharski
M.Marsili (Chairman)

11 June 2008