Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics

Together with the Joachim Herz Stiftung the WPC awards the "Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics" for outstanding research achievements in theoretical physics, in collaboration with the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI) and the Quantum Universe (QU). While the award was focused on photon science until 2017, it now covers all areas of theoretical physics.

Award ceremony at the Planetarium Hamburg in 2019
The award is endowed with a prize money of 137.036,00 Euros. The prize winner is expected to interact with the research groups and especially with young scientists at the Hamburg-Bahrenfeld campus during one or more visits to Hamburg.
Nominations for the award are requested once per year from members of the research institutes in Hamburg, the executive board of the German Physical Society as well as the previous winners and jury members. After a preselection through a WPC jury, the winner is selected by an international award jury. The award ceremony takes place during an international symposium for theoretical physics in November in Hamburg.
PRIZE WINNERS
- 2010 Maciej Lewenstein, ICFO Barcelona
- 2011 Peter Zoller, Universität Innsbruck
- 2012 Shaul Mukamel, University of California
- 2013 Chris H. Greene, Purdue University
- 2014 Antoine Georges, Collège de France, École Polytechnique, Universität Genf
- 2015 Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics Garching
- 2016 Mikhail Katsnelson, Radboud-Universiteit Nijmegen
- 2017 Andrew Millis, Columbia University New York
- 2018 Hirosi Ooguri, California Institute of Technology
- 2019 Matthias Troyer, ETH Zürich
- 2020 Valery Rubakov, INR Moscow
- 2021 Eugene Demler, Harvard U & Zürich
- 2022 Nicola Spaldin, ETH Zürich
- 2023 Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
AWARD JURY 2023
- Andrea Cavalleri, MPSD Hamburg
- Lorenz Cederbaum, University of Heidelberg
- Norbert Ritter, Universität Hamburg
- Andrew Millis, Columbia University
- Lisa Randall, Harvard University
- Volker Schomerus, (chair), DESY
- Geraldine Servant, DESY and University of Hamburg
- Joseph Silk, Johns Hopkins University
- Robert Feidenhans'l, Board of Trustees of the Joachim Herz Stiftung
Former Members of the Jury
- Albrecht Wagner, Board of Trustees of the Joachim Herz Stiftung
- Heinrich Graener, University of Hamburg
- Ignacio Cirac, MPI of Quantum Optics (Garching)
- Shaul Mukhamel, University of California (Irvine)
- Nathan Seiberg, IAS Princeton