Winner. Scientist of the Year 2021

Laurens Molenkamp

Academic title, degree: Professor of Physics, Doctor of Science
Fields of science: Condensed matter physics
Research interest: Quantum transport in nanostructures, semiconductor spintronics, optical spectroscopy of semiconductors
Institution: Institute for Topological Insulators, University of Würzburg
Position: Director
Country: Germany

Prof. Dr. Laurens Molenkamp is an experimental condensed matter physicist. He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Groningen, and spent several years first with Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven and then as Associate Professor at the RWTH in Aachen. He came to the University of Würzburg in 1999 and is now the Chair of Experimental Physics III and leads the II-VI MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) unit. His research interests include quantum transport in nanostructures, semiconductor spintronics, and optical spectroscopy of semiconductors. He was a co-recipient of the American Physical Society 2012 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize for his experimental observation of the quantum spin Hall effect, opening up the field of topological insulators. Since 2012, he has been the Editor of the physics journal Physical Review B. Thomson Reuters included him on their annual prediction shortlist for the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for his experimental research, with Charles L. Kane and Shoucheng Zhang, on the quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators.

Awards:
2004, Fellow of the Institute of Physics;
2009, Honorary Professor at the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;
2009, Outstanding Referee for the American Physical Society;
2009, Fellow of the American Physical Society;
2010, European Physical Society Europhysics Condensed Matter Physics Prize;
2011, European Research Council ERC-AG Award;
2012, American Physical Society Oliver E. Buckley Prize;
2013, Milner foundation Frontier Physics Prize;
2013, Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences;
2014, Leibniz Award of the German Research Foundation DFG;
2014, Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate;
2015, Donders Guest Professor (Utrecht University);
2017, Stern-Gerlach Medal of the German Physical Society DPG;
2017 King Faisal International Prize for Science;
2017, European Research Council ERC-AG Award;
2018, Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art;
2019, Member of the Bavarian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Named lectures at Leiden (Ehrenfest, 2013), Delft (Kavli, 2015), Tübingen (von Borreis, 2015) and Utrecht (EMMEPH, 2016).

Outstanding work on semiconductor structures and topological insulators (quantum transport in nanostructures, semiconductor spintronics, and optical spectroscopy of semiconductors).

The quantum spin Hall effect was first proposed by Kane and Mele in 2005. Dr. Laurens Molenkamp's team focused on mercury telluride has provided notable insights into this phenomenon. Conducting transport experiments on special semiconductors grown using a molecular beam epitaxy machine, Dr. Molenkamp’s findings include the identification of the quantum Hall effect in a three-dimensional topological insulator and the potential for topological superconductivity. With future applications in fields including quantum metrology and topological quantum computing, Dr. Molenkamp’s research continues to extend our understanding of the physical makeup of our universe.