Ronald Hanson receives Ammodo KNAW Award for fundamental research
Physicist Ronald Hanson is one of the eight scientists who are to receive the Ammodo KNAW Award in 2015. The Ammodo Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) have announced the names of the winners. They will receive a cash prize of EUR 300,000 to spend on fundamental research. The award ceremony will take place on 11 March 2015.
FOM workgroup leader Ronald Hanson (Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor of Quantum Physics, Delft University of Technology) revisits old dogmas and Einstein's world view. By manipulating individual atoms and electrons, he manages to break through old barriers – for example, he was the first person in the world to communicate information between computer chips without displacement of matter or light. Does his teleportation bring us closer to the quantum computer? See this movie for more information about quantum computation research at FOM, in which Hanson, group leader of the former FOM focus group in Delft, talks about his research.
The Ammodo KNAW Award
The Ammodo KNAW Award, which is being presented this year for the first time, was established to encourage unfettered, fundamental scientific research in the Netherlands across the entire scientific spectrum. The Ammodo KNAW Award will be presented every other year to eight internationally recognised researchers in four fields: Biomedical Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. The Award is intended for researchers who obtained their PhDs in the past fifteen years and who are associated with a Dutch university or research institute. More information about the eight laureates can be found at the KNAW-website.
The eight 2015 winners were selected from 114 nominations. They may use their award in the coming years to explore new avenues of fundamental research. Ammodo and the KNAW hope that the prizes will contribute to the development of such scientific research in the Netherlands by encouraging talented researchers at a crucial stage of their academic careers.
More information
KNAW Communication Department
Marja van der Putten
+ 31 (0)20 551 08 58 / + 31 (0)6 13 15 08 37
About Ammodo
Ammodo promotes the arts and the sciences, focusing on projects which aim to achieve high international standards. In the arts Ammodo supports projects that contribute to the development of both visual and performing arts. In the sciences Ammodo stimulates unfettered fundamental scientific research through the Ammodo KNAW Award. Ammodo is a public welfare institution. For more information, please see www.ammodo.org.
About the KNAW
The Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW), has three main roles. Firstly, the Academy is an active association of outstanding scientists; secondly, as a wholly independent institution it serves the interest of science and advises the government; thirdly, it is responsible for seventeen (inter)nationally renowned research institutes in the fields of humanities, social sciences, life sciences and social debate.