2013 ICTP Prize Recipients Announced

ICTP has awarded its 2013 ICTP Prize to two women for research in the fields of high energy physics and solar energy materials.

Physicists Yasaman Farzan of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, Iran, and Patchanita Thamyongkit of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, share this year's prize for two very different areas of cutting-edge research.

Professor Farzan, a former Junior Associate of ICTP, specializes in neutrino research. The ICTP Prize cites her theoretical contributions to the physics of neutrinos, which have important consequences for astrophysical observations and experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (read the full citation here).

Professor Thamyongkit's interests lie in organic chemistry, in particular in the exploration of light-harvesting materials for solar energy. The ICTP Prize recognizes her experimental chemistry contributions to organic, conjugated, and semiconducting materials of great relevance for photovoltaic research (read full citation here).

The ICTP Prize was created in 1982. It recognizes young scientists (under 40) from developing countries who work and live in those countries and who have made outstanding and original contributions to physics or mathematics. The prize includes a sculpture, certificate and a cash award of €3,000. For further details, see the ICTP Prize webpage.

Each year, the ICTP Prize is given in honour of a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field in which the prize is given. The 2013 ICTP Prize honours Marie Curie, who became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win the award in two different science fields (physics and chemistry).