Argonne scientist wins Humboldt Award

ARGONNE, Ill. (Nov. 7, 2003) — Valerii Vinokur, a senior scientist and director of the Materials Theory Institute at Argonne National Laboratory, has won a prestigious Humboldt Research Prize for his work in the area of superconductivity and nanophysics.

The Humboldt Research Prize, awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, is granted annually to scientists and scholars with internationally recognized academic qualifications. The research award honors the academic achievements of the award winner's lifetime. Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany in cooperation with colleagues, and the award totals 75,000 Euros, or approximately $90,000.

The Humboldt Prize recognizes in part the value and quality and the international impact of the program on nanophysics that Vinokur established at Argonne. Vinokur said he expects to use his research award to spark collaboration between German scientists and the new Argonne Theory Institute, which is designed to attract the leading experts and best talents in the field of condensed matter physics for collaborative work closely related to Argonne's experimental and theoretical projects.

Vinokur, a Chicago resident, has been at Argonne since 1990, and was named director of Argonne's Materials Theory Institute when it was established in 2001. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and was presented the prestigious John Bardeen Award for Theory of Superconductivity earlier this year. A native of Russia, he holds the Ph.D. in physics from the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Catherine Foster (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.