This years Descartes-Huygens Prize has been awarded to two physicists, Ludwik Leibler and Willem Vos, for their research in polymer science and nanophotonics. The prize was set up by the French and Dutch governments in 1995 to reward scientists from the two countries for their research and for their contribution to collaboration between France and the Netherlands.
Ludwik Leibler is a French physicist who has developed a revolutionary new technique that uses a nanoparticle solution made from polymers to connect human tissue. His share of the prize money (23 000 in all) will allow him to take part in Radboud Universitys Nanomedicine Alliance research programme, where he hopes to study how cells and soft materials, like hydrogels, interact.
Willem Vos is a nanophotonics expert and works for the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Twente. His team recently discovered that a photonics bandgap can completely stop light being emitted from a material. His share of the prize will allow him to forge a partnership between the Institute of Nanosciences and Cryogenics in Grenoble and the University of Twente. During his time in Grenoble, he plans to study ultrafast methods for controlling how light and other particles interact with each other a discipline called cavity quantum electrodynamics.
Photonic materials are nanostructured crystals in which periodic variation of the refractive index on the length scale of visible light produces a photonic "band gap". This gap affects how photons propagate through the material and is similar to the way in which a periodic potential in semiconductors affects the flow of electrons by defining allowed and forbidden energy bands. In the case of photonic crystals, light of certain wavelength ranges can pass through the photonic band gap while light in other ranges is reflected.
The Descartes-Huygens Prize is named after the French philosopher Ren Descartes (1596-1650) and Dutch mathematician Christian Huygens (1629-1695). Each year, it is awarded to scientists from a different discipline (the humanities and social sciences, the natural sciences and the life sciences). It is presented by the French Acadmie des Sciences and The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
The Prizewinners will receive their awards on the 26th January 2015 at The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam.
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Nanoscientists bag Descartes-Huygens Prize