Enrico Fermi Prize


The Enrico Fermi Prize, first awarded in 2001, is given by the Italian Physical Society. It is a yearly award of EUR 30,000 honoring one or more Members of the Society who have "particularly honoured physics with their discoveries."

Recipients

YearWinnerRecognition
2018Federico Capassofor seminal contributions to the physics of electronic and optical materials and their applications, ranging from the invention of the quantum cascade laser to the design of novel semiconductor materials, including metasurfaces
2018for his longstanding contribution to theoretical physics, including the study of superfluidity in liquid helium and of Van der Waals-Casimir forces, as well as for the development of the Gross-Pitaevskii theory which is a fundamental block of the physics of quantum gases
2018Erio Tosattifor fundamental theoretical contributions aimed to understand the optical properties of solids, in particular of surface and transport phenomena, even in extreme conditions of dimensional confinement, high temperature and pressure
2017Gianpaolo Bellinifor the measurement of the solar neutrino spectrum, providing the evidence for nuclear hydrogen fusion in the sun and for adiabatic neutrino flavour conversion in matter
2017for his theoretical contributions to the cosmogenic production of ultra-high energy neutrinos, to high energy neutrino astronomy and to the solar neutrino problem
2017for the first observation of low energy solar electron neutrinos providing the first direct evidence of hydrogen fusion inside a star
2016Barry Barishfor his fundamental contributions to the formation of the scientific collaborations LIGO and LIGO-Virgo and for his role in addressing various technological and scientific challenges whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves
2016Adalberto Giazottofor his decisive contributions in conceiving and realising the first interferometer with super-attenuators, Virgo, which made possible the quest for gravitational wave sources with an unprecedented sensitivity at low frequency
2015for the invention of the laser-wakefield-acceleration technique which led to a large number of fundamental and interdisciplinary applications ranging from accelerator science to plasma physics and astrophysics
2015for the first observation of Anderson localisation and of anomalous transport phenomena described by Lévy statistics in the framework of his highly original research on light propagation in disordered media
2014Federico Fagginfor the invention of the MOS silicon gate technology that led him to the realization in 1971 of the first modern microprocessor
2013for the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN LHC collider – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the awardees as spokespersons
2013for the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN LHC collider – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the awardees as spokespersons
2013Fabiola Gianottifor the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN LHC collider – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the awardees as spokespersons
2013Paolo Giubellinofor the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN LHC collider – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the awardees as spokespersons
2013Guido Tonellifor the outstanding results that the five large international collaboration experiments at the CERN LHC collider – LHCb, TOTEM, ATLAS, ALICE, CMS – have achieved during the first period of LHC data taking under the successful guidance of the awardees as spokespersons
2012Roberto Carfor the discovery of a molecular dynamics method known the world over as the Car-Parrinello method. This method has been a breakthrough in the field of numerical simulations, with great impact in many interdisciplinary contexts both theoretical and experimental, ranging from material science to chemistry and biology
2012Michele Parrinellofor the discovery of a molecular dynamics method known the world over as the Car-Parrinello method. This method has been a breakthrough in the field of numerical simulations, with great impact in many interdisciplinary contexts both theoretical and experimental, ranging from material science to chemistry and biology
2011for their fundamental contribution to the discovery of the weak neutral currents with the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN
2011for their fundamental contribution to the discovery of the weak neutral currents with the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN
2010Enrico Costafor the discovery of the X-ray afterglow of gamma-ray burst with the BeppoSAX satellite
2010for the discovery of the X-ray afterglow of gamma-ray burst with the BeppoSAX satellite
2010Francesco Iachellofor his contribution to the theory of atomic nuclei and, in particular, for the discovery of a rich variety of dynamical symmetries and supersymmetries
2009Dimitri Nanopoulosfor the discovery of fundamental phenomenological properties of grand unification and superstring theories
2009for the discovery of an infinite-dimensional algebra of primary importance for the construction of string theories
2008Giulio Casatifor his understanding of the relationship between classical and quantum chaos also in relation to quantum computing
2008Luigi Lugiatofor the discovery of instability-driven structures in non linear light-matter interactions
2008Luciano Pietronerofor demonstrating the onset of fractal shapes in a variety of self-organizing phenomena
2007for her outstanding works on K-meson and neutrino physics
2007Ettore Fiorinifor his contribution to the discovery of weak neutral currents and to the study of solar neutrinos
2007for the demonstration of direct CP symmetry breaking in the K-meson decay
2006for the discovery of quantum vortices in superfluid helium
2006for the first experimental demonstration of the statistical properties of coherent radiation
2005Sergio Ferrarafor his contribution to the discovery of the theory of supergravity
2005for his discovery of dual models, subsequently acknowledged as the theoretical basis for a string theory of quantum gravity
2005Bruno Zuminofor his contributions to supersymmetry and supergravity theories
2004for his contributions to the study of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, in particular for the realization of degenerate quantum mixtures of bosons and fermions, and the invention of new experimental techniques that allowed him to obtain the first Bose-Einstein condensation of 41K atoms
2003Nicola Cabibbofor his theory of down- and strange-quark mixing in weak decays, in which the well-known parameter called "Cabibbo angle" plays a key role
2003for his pioneering works in the field of strange-particle weak decays and for his role of leader in this fundamental field of subnuclear physics
2003Luciano Maianifor having introduced, together with S. Glashow and J. Iliopoulos, the so-called GIM mechanism which, predicting the existence of the fourth quark, allowed to solve the problem of flavour-changing neutral currents
2002Giorgio Parisifor his contributions to field theory and statistical mechanics, and in particular for his fundamental results concerning the statistical properties of disordered systems
2001for his discovery of the first example of nuclear antimatter and for his works that paved the way to the discovery of the charged heavy lepton''