walter kohn prize

The prize for quantum-mechanical materials and molecular modeling, jointly instituted and co-funded by ICTP and the Quantum ESPRESSO Foundation is awarded biennially to a young scientist for outstanding contributions in the field of quantum-mechanical materials and molecular modeling, performed in a developing country or emerging economy, with emphasis on first-principles techniques.

The Prize is usually awarded to one person but may be shared equally among recipients who contribute to the same work. The Prize consists of:

• a cash award of €2000
• a citation
• an invitation to attend the award ceremony and deliver an award lecture at ICTP

The prize last edition:

The winner of the  2024 prize is Professor Rafael Gonzalez Hernandez,  from the Universidad del Norte, Colombia, for his ground-breaking work in uncovering the physics and properties of altermagnetism, an unconventional magnetic state of matter, and for his ab initio predictions of related effects in real materials.

Gonzalez Hernandez’s work has paved the way for experimental validation of altermagnetism using density functional theory.

The award ceremony will be held in January 2025 at ICTP, Trieste, Italy, during the International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials Science: Total Energy and Force Methods.

• • The Walter Kohn Prize Winner 2024
  • The Walter Kohn Prize Winner 2022
  • The Walter Kohn Prize Winner 2018
  • The Walter Kohn Prize Winner 2016