The Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Prize was established in 2000, under the sponsorship of Elsevier, by the organizers of the International Conference on the Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity (M2S).
The prize is named in honor of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who discovered superconductivity in 1911.
The prize "recognizes outstanding experiments which illuminate the nature of superconductivity other than materials".
The winners are selected by the members of the Kamerlingh Onnes Prize Committee, appointed by the conference organizers.
[1] The prize was first awarded in 2000 at the 6th International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity and High Temperature Superconductors: The new H. Kamerlingh Onnes Prize for outstanding experiments that illuminate the nature of superconductivity other than materials, was established by Elsevier Science, publisher of Physica C-Superconductivity and its Applications.