Nuclear Physics Prize Reaches Fundraising Goal

APS’s newest prize reached its fundraising goal in late October and has selected its first recipient. The new Herman Feshbach Prize is awarded to physicists who have made important theoretical contributions to the field of nuclear physics.

The Prize’s selection committee picked John Negele of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his work on many-body theory and the study of nucleons. Negele will receive the prize and the $10,000 award stipend at the 2014 April Meeting in Savannah, Georgia.

“I feel honored and humbled,” Negele said. “Although it is gratifying to have my research contributions appreciated by the nuclear physics community, what makes this award especially meaningful to me is the fact that it was founded in memory of Herman Feshbach. He was a towering figure in our field and was a colleague and friend at MIT where we shared our passion for nuclear physics for 30 years.”

More than 100 individuals and organizations contributed to the fundraising effort. The Division of Nuclear Physics raised over $200,000 to endow the prize.

“The response was very enthusiastic,” said Gerald Miller of the University of Washington, the Prize’s fundraising committee chair. “I anticipated a three-year fundraising period, but it took only two years.”

Herman Feshbach worked at MIT’s physics department for more than fifty years, serving as its chair for ten and directed its Center for Theoretical Physics from 1967 through 1973. He contributed greatly to the understanding of nuclear reactions and the structure of nuclei, and was an outspoken advocate for scientific freedom around the world.