The recipient is chosen for being "an outstanding contributor to the field of materials physics, who is noted for the quality of his/her research, review articles and lecturing."
The $10000 prize was founded in 1989 by contributions from AT&T, General Electric, GTE, International Business Machines, and Xerox Corporations.
[2] This award recognizes outstanding and sustained contributions by an early-career researcher to the soft matter field.
[3] The LeRoy Apker Award was established in 1978 to recognize outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students.
[4] The APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research was established in 2016 to recognize contributions of the highest level that advance our knowledge and understanding of the physical universe.
Recipients to date are Edward Witten (2016), Daniel Kleppner (2017), Eugene Parker (2018), Bertrand Halperin (2019), Myriam Sarachik (2020), Gordon Baym (2021), Elliott H. Lieb (2022), Sidney R. Nagel (2023), Stuart Parkin (2024) and Paul Corkum (2025).
[8] The Herbert P. Broida Prize, established in 1979, is awarded every two years for outstanding experimental advances in the fields of atomic and molecular spectroscopy or chemical physics.
The Joseph A. Burton Forum Award was established in 1974 to recognize outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society.
Stanley Corrsin Award is a $5000 prize given since 2011 "to recognize and encourage a particularly influential contribution to fundamental fluid dynamics.
The prize is named after Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer, who first measured electron diffraction.
[13] The John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research, established in 1981 but named after John M. Dawson in 2007, is an annual award that recognizes "a particular recent outstanding achievement in plasma physics research".
[14] The award carries a prize of $5000 divided among the year's recipients and an allowance for registration and travel to the APS Division of Plasma Physics Annual Meeting.
It honours the legacy of Mildred Dresselhaus, and is awarded for an "outstanding scientist in the areas of nanoscience or nanomaterials".
The Einstein Prize was established in 1999 to recognize outstanding accomplishments in the field of gravitational physics.
[26] The Frank Isakson Prize was established in 1979 to recognize outstanding optical research that leads to breakthroughs in the condensed matter sciences.
The Leo P. Kadanoff Prize, established in 2018, is awarded annually to recognize outstanding theoretical, experimental, or computational research in statistical and nonlinear physics.
Lev D. Landau and Lyman Spitzer Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics is "given to an individual or group of researchers for outstanding contributions in plasma physics and for advancing the collaboration between Europe and the United States of America."
The award was established in 1931 to recognize and encourage outstanding interdisciplinary research in chemistry and physics, in the spirit of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Irving Langmuir.
The Lars Onsager Prize recognizes outstanding research in theoretical statistical physics including the quantum fluids.
Russell and Marian Donnelly in memory of Lars Onsager and his passion for analytical results.
[43] The Norman F. Ramsey Prize in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, and in Precision Tests of Fundamental Laws and Symmetries recognizes achievements in the two fields of Norman Ramsey: AMO physics and in precisions tests of fundamental laws and symmetries.
The Andrei Sakharov Prize was established to recognize "outstanding leadership and/or achievements of scientists in upholding human rights."
The prize is named in recognition of the courageous and effective work of the Soviet nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov on behalf of human rights, to the detriment of his own scientific career and despite the loss of his own personal freedom.
It is presented annually for outstanding accomplishments by international physicists to promote the use of physics for the benefit of society.
George E. Valley, Jr. Prize was established in 2000 to "recognize an early-career individual for an outstanding scientific contribution to physics that is deemed to have significant potential for a dramatic impact on the field.