Sakurai Prize
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The J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics, is presented by the
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
at its annual April Meeting, and honors outstanding achievement in particle physics theory. The prize consists of a monetary award ($10,000 USD), a certificate citing the contributions recognized by the award, and a travel allowance for the recipient to attend the presentation. The award is endowed by the family and friends of particle physicist
J. J. Sakurai was a Japanese-American particle physicist and theorist. While a graduate student at Cornell University, Sakurai independently discovered the V-A theory of weak interactions. He authored the popular graduate text ''Modern Quantum Mechanics'' ( ...
. The prize has been awarded annually since 1985.


Prize recipients

The following have won this prize:The source of all information in this section, including quotations of the citation texts, is: * 2023
Heinrich Leutwyler Heinrich Leutwyler (born Oct 12, 1938) is a Swiss theoretical physicist, with interests in elementary particle physics, the theory of strong interactions, and quantum field theory.
: "For fundamental contributions to the effective field theory of pions at low energies, and for proposing that the gluon is a color octet." * 2022
Nima Arkani-Hamed Nima Arkani-Hamed ( fa, نیما ارکانی حامد; born April 5, 1972) is an American-Canadian
: "For the development of transformative new frameworks for physics beyond the standard model with novel experimental signatures, including work on large extra dimensions, the little Higgs, and more generally for new ideas connected to the origin of the electroweak scale." * 2021
Vernon Barger Vernon Duane Barger (born June 5, 1938 in Curllsville, Pennsylvania) is an American theoretical physicist, specializing in elementary particle physics. Education and career Berger graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1960 with a B.S. i ...
: "For pioneering work in collider physics contributing to the discovery and characterization of the W boson, top quark, and Higgs boson, and for the development of incisive strategies to test theoretical ideas with experiments." * 2020 Pierre Sikivie: "For seminal work recognizing the potential visibility of the invisible axion, devising novel methods to detect it, and for theoretical investigations of its cosmological implications." * 2019
Lisa Randall Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist working in particle physics and cosmology. She is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University. Her research includes the funda ...
and
Raman Sundrum Raman Sundrum (born 1964) is an Indian-American theoretical particle physicist. He contributed to the field with a class of models called the Randall–Sundrum models, first published in 1999 with Lisa Randall. Sundrum is a Distinguished Universi ...
: "For creative contributions to physics beyond the Standard Model, in particular the discovery that warped extra dimensions of space can solve the hierarchy puzzle, which has had a tremendous impact on searches at the Large Hadron Collider." * 2018
Ann Nelson Ann Elizabeth Nelson (April 29, 1958 – August 4, 2019) was a particle physicist and professor of physics in the Particle Theory Group at the University of Washington from 1994 until her death. Nelson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2 ...
and Michael Dine: "For groundbreaking explorations of physics beyond the standard model of particle physics, including their seminal joint work on dynamical super-symmetry breaking, and for their innovative contributions to a broad range of topics, including new models of electroweak symmetry breaking, baryogenesis, and solutions to the strong charge parity problem." * 2017
Gordon L. Kane Gordon Leon Kane (born January 19, 1937) is ''Victor Weisskopf Distinguished University Professor'' at the University of Michigan and director emeritus at the Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics (LCTP), a leading center for the advancement of ...
, Howard E. Haber, Jack F. Gunion and
Sally Dawson Sally Dawson is an American physicist who deals with theoretical elementary particle physics. Education and career Dawson studied mathematics and physics at Duke University with a bachelor's degree in 1977 and at Harvard University with a maste ...
: "For instrumental contributions to the theory of the properties, reactions, and signatures of the Higgs boson." * 2016
G. Peter Lepage G. Peter Lepage (born 13 April 1952) is a Canadian American theoretical physicist and an academic administrator. He was the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University from 2003 to 2013. Early life and educati ...
: "For inventive applications of
quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...
to
particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
, particularly in establishing the theory of hadronic exclusive processes, developing nonrelativistic effective field theories, and determining standard-model parameters with lattice gauge theory." * 2015
George Zweig George Zweig (; born May 30, 1937) is a Russian-American physicist. He was trained as a particle physicist under Richard Feynman. He introduced, independently of Murray Gell-Mann, the quark model (although he named it "aces"). He later turned his ...
: "For his independent proposal that hadrons are composed of fractionally charged fundamental constituents, called
quarks A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly ...
or aces, and for developing its revolutionary implications for hadron masses and properties." * 2014
Zvi Bern Zvi Bern (born 17 September 1960) is an American theoretical particle physicist. He is a professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bern studied physics and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned his do ...
, Lance J. Dixon, and David A. Kosower: "For pathbreaking contributions to the calculation of perturbative scattering amplitudes, which led to a deeper understanding of quantum field theory and to powerful new tools for computing QCD processes." * 2013
Helen Quinn Helen Rhoda Arnold Quinn (born 19 May 1943) is an Australian-born particle physicist and educator who has made major contributions to both fields. Her contributions to theoretical physics include the Peccei–Quinn theory which implies a corres ...
and
Roberto Peccei Roberto Daniele Peccei (; January 6, 1942 – June 1, 2020) was a theoretical particle physicist whose principal interests lay in the area of electroweak interactions and in the interface between particle physics and physical cosmology. He was mo ...
: "For their proposal of the elegant mechanism to resolve the famous problem of strong-CP violation which, in turn, led to the invention of axions, a subject of intense experimental and theoretical investigation for more than three decades." * 2012
Guido Altarelli Guido Altarelli (12 July 1941 – 30 September 2015) was an Italian theoretical physicist. Biography Altarelli graduated in Physics from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1963 with Raoul Gatto whom he followed to the University of Florence (196 ...
,
Torbjörn Sjöstrand Torbjörn Sjöstrand (born 13 November 1954) is a Swedish theoretical physicist and a professor at Lund University in Sweden, where he also got his PhD in 1982. He is one of the main authors of PYTHIA, a program for generation of high-energy ph ...
, and
Bryan Webber Bryan Ronald Webber, FRS, FInstP (born 25 July 1943) is a British physicist and academic. He was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1973 to 2010, and Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge from 1999 to 2010. H ...
. "For key ideas leading to the detailed confirmation of the Standard Model of particle physics, enabling high energy experiments to extract precise information about Quantum Chromodynamics, electroweak interactions and possible new physics." * 2011
Chris Quigg Chris Quigg (born December 15, 1944) is an American theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He graduated from Yale University in 1966 and received his Ph.D. in 1970 under the tutelage of J. D. Jackson at th ...
,
Estia Eichten Estia Joseph Eichten (born 1946), is an American theoretical physicist, of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics, where he was a student of Roman Jackiw's, ...
, Ian Hinchliffe, and Kenneth Lane: "For their work, separately and collectively, to chart a course of the exploration of TeV scale physics using multi-TeV hadron colliders." * 2010
Gerald Guralnik Gerald Stanford "Gerry" Guralnik (; September 17, 1936 – April 26, 2014) was the Chancellor’s Professor of Physics at Brown University. In 1964 he co-discovered the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson with C. R. Hagen and Tom Kibble (GHK). As par ...
,
C. R. Hagen Carl Richard Hagen (; born 2 February 1937) is a professor of particle physics at the University of Rochester. He is most noted for his contributions to the Standard Model and Spontaneous symmetry breaking, Symmetry breaking as well as the 1964 co- ...
,
Tom Kibble Sir Thomas Walter Bannerman Kibble (; 23 December 1932 – 2 June 2016) was a British theoretical physicist, senior research investigator at the Blackett Laboratory and Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London. His ...
,
Robert Brout Robert Brout (; June 14, 1928 – May 3, 2011) was an American theoretical physicist who made significant contributions in elementary particle physics. He was a professor of physics at Université Libre de Bruxelles where he had created, together ...
, Francois Englert, and
Peter Higgs Peter Ware Higgs (born 29 May 1929) is a British theoretical physicist, Emeritus Professor in the University of Edinburgh,Griggs, Jessica (Summer 2008The Missing Piece ''Edit'' the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, p. 17 and Nobel Prize ...
: "For elucidation of the properties of spontaneous
symmetry breaking In physics, symmetry breaking is a phenomenon in which (infinitesimally) small fluctuations acting on a system crossing a critical point decide the system's fate, by determining which branch of a bifurcation is taken. To an outside observe ...
in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of
vector boson In particle physics, a vector boson is a boson whose spin equals one. The vector bosons that are regarded as elementary particles in the Standard Model are the gauge bosons, the force carriers of fundamental interactions: the photon of electromag ...
masses." See also 1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers,
Higgs mechanism In the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs mechanism is essential to explain the generation mechanism of the property "mass" for gauge bosons. Without the Higgs mechanism, all bosons (one of the two classes of particles, the other be ...
, and Higgs boson. * 2009 Davison E. Soper, John C. Collins and R. Keith Ellis: "For work in perturbative
Quantum Chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type ...
, including applications to problems pivotal to the interpretation of high energy particle collisions" * 2008 Alexei Smirnov and Stanislav Mikheyev: "For pioneering and influential work on the enhancement of neutrino oscillations in matter, which is essential to a quantitative understanding of the solar neutrino flux" * 2007 Stanley Brodsky: "For applications of perturbative quantum field theory to critical questions of elementary particle physics, in particular, to the analysis of hard exclusive strong interaction processes" * 2006
Savas Dimopoulos Savas Dimopoulos (; el, Σάββας Δημόπουλος; born 1952) is a particle physicist at Stanford University. He worked at CERN from 1994 to 1997. Dimopoulos is well known for his work on constructing theories beyond the Standard Model. ...
: "For his creative ideas on dynamical symmetry breaking, supersymmetry, and extra spatial dimensions, which have shaped theoretical research on TeV-scale physics, thereby inspiring a wide range of experiments" * 2005 Susumu Okubo: For groundbreaking investigations into the pattern of hadronic masses and decay rates, which provided essential clues into the development of the quark model, and for demonstrating that
CP violation In particle physics, CP violation is a violation of CP-symmetry (or charge conjugation parity symmetry): the combination of C-symmetry (charge symmetry) and P-symmetry ( parity symmetry). CP-symmetry states that the laws of physics should be the ...
permits partial decay rate asymmetries" * 2004 Ikaros Bigi and Anthony Ichiro Sanda: For pioneering theoretical insights that pointed the way to the very fruitful experimental study of CP violation in B decays, and for continuing contributions to the fields of CP and heavy flavor physics" * 2003 Alfred Mueller and George Sterman: "For developing concepts and techniques in QCD, such as infrared safety and factorization in hard processes, which permitted precise quantitative predictions and experimental tests, and thereby helped to establish QCD as the theory of the strong interactions" * 2002 William Marciano and Alberto Sirlin: "For their pioneering work on radiative corrections, which made precision electroweak studies a powerful method of probing the Standard Model and searching for new physics" * 2001 Nathan Isgur,
Mikhail Voloshin Mikhail "Misha" Voloshin (May 14, 1953, Bucharest, Romania – March 20, 2020) was a Russian and American theoretical physicist. Voloshin graduated from physics class of Moscow School 57 in 1970. Voloshin started working at ITEP in 1976 and accor ...
, Mark Wise: "For the construction of the heavy quark mass expansion and the discovery of the heavy quark symmetry in quantum chromodynamics, which led to a quantitative theory of the decays of c and b flavored hadrons" * 2000
Curtis Callan Curtis Gove Callan Jr. (born October 11, 1942) is an American theoretical physicist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He has conducted research in gauge theory, string theory, inst ...
: "For his classic formulation of the
renormalization group In theoretical physics, the term renormalization group (RG) refers to a formal apparatus that allows systematic investigation of the changes of a physical system as viewed at different scales. In particle physics, it reflects the changes in the ...
, his contributions to
instanton An instanton (or pseudoparticle) is a notion appearing in theoretical and mathematical physics. An instanton is a classical solution to equations of motion with a finite, non-zero action, either in quantum mechanics or in quantum field theory. Mo ...
physics and to the theory of monopoles and
strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
" * 1999
Mikhail Shifman Mikhail "Misha" Arkadyevich Shifman (russian: Михаи́л Арка́дьевич Ши́фман; born 4 April 1949) is a theoretical physicist (high energy physics), formerly at Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Ida ...
,
Arkady Vainshtein Arkady Vainshtein (russian: Аркáдий Иóсифович Вайнштéйн; born 24 February 1942) is a Russian and American Professor Emeritus of Theoretical physics who was awarded Pomeranchuk Prize (2005) and Sakurai Prize (1999) for theor ...
, and : "For fundamental contributions to the understanding of non-perturbative QCD, non-leptonic weak decays, and the analytic properties of supersymmetric gauge theories" * 1998
Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an American physicis ...
: "For his pioneering contributions to hadronic string models, lattice gauge theories, quantum chromodynamics, and dynamical symmetry breaking" * 1997
Thomas Appelquist Thomas William Appelquist is a theoretical particle physicist who is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Yale University. He received his bachelor's degree from Illinois Benedictine College and his Ph.D. in 1968 from Cornell University ...
: "For his pioneering work on charmonium and on the de-coupling of heavy particles" * 1996
William A. Bardeen William Allan Bardeen (born September 15, 1941 in Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American theoretical physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is the son of John Bardeen and Jane Maxwell Bardeen. Biography After graduating from Co ...
: "For fundamental insights into the structure and meaning of the axial anomaly and for contributions to the understanding of perturbative quantum chromodynamics" * 1995
Howard Georgi Howard Mason Georgi III (born January 6, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Harvard College Professor at Harvard University. He is also Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics. He was Co-M ...
: "For his pioneering contributions toward the unification of strong and
electroweak interaction In particle physics, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very differe ...
s, and for his application of quantum chromodynamics to the properties and interactions of hadrons" * 1994
Yoichiro Nambu was a Japanese-American physicist and professor at the University of Chicago. Known for his contributions to the field of theoretical physics, he was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008 for the discovery in 1960 of the mechanism ...
: "For his many fundamental contributions to field theory and particle physics, including the understanding of the pion as the signaler of spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry" * 1993
Mary K. Gaillard Mary Katharine Gaillard (born April 1, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Her focus is on particle physics. She is a professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, a member of the Berkeley Center for Theore ...
: "For contributions to particle physics phenomenology and theory, and in particular for her work with Ben Lee and others applying QCD to K meson mixing and decays and to the bound states of charmed quarks" * 1992
Lincoln Wolfenstein Lincoln Wolfenstein (February 10, 1923, Cleveland, Ohio – March 27, 2015, Oakland, California) was an American particle physicist who studied the weak interaction. Wolfenstein was born in 1923 and obtained his PhD in 1949 from the University o ...
: "For his many contributions to the theory of weak interactions, particularly CP violation and the properties of neutrinos" * 1991
Vladimir Gribov Vladimir Naumovich Gribov (Russian Влади́мир Нау́мович Гри́бов; March 25, 1930, LeningradAugust 13, 1997, Budapest) was a prominent Russian theoretical physicist, who worked on high-energy physics, quantum field theory an ...
: "For his early pioneering work on the high energy behavior of quantum field theories and his elucidating studies of the global structure of non-abelian gauge theories" * 1990
Toichiro Kinoshita Tōichirō Kinoshita (, '' Kinoshita Tōichirō ''; b. 23 January 1925 in Tokyo) is a Japanese-American theoretical physicist. Kinoshita studied physics at the University of Tokyo, earning his bachelor's degree in 1947 and then his PhD in 1952. A ...
: "For his theoretical contributions to precision tests of quantum electrodynamics and the electroweak theory, especially his pioneering work on the computation of the lepton anomalous magnetic moments" * 1989
Nicola Cabibbo Nicola Cabibbo (10 April 1935 – 16 August 2010) was an Italian physicist, best known for his work on the weak interaction. Life Cabibbo, son of a Sicilian lawyer, was born in Rome. He graduated in theoretical physics at the Università di Rom ...
: "For his outstanding contribution in elucidating the structure of the hadronic weak current" * 1988 Stephen L. Adler: "For his work in elucidating the consequences of chiral symmetry through sum rules and low energy theorems" * 1987
Luciano Maiani Luciano Maiani (born 16 July 1941, in Rome) is a Sammarinese physicist best known for his prediction of the charm quark with Sheldon Glashow and John Iliopoulos (the " GIM mechanism"). Academic history In 1964 Luciano Maiani received his degree ...
and
John Iliopoulos John (Jean) Iliopoulos (Greek: Ιωάννης Ηλιόπουλος; 1940, Kalamata, Greece) is a Greek physicist. He is the first person to present the Standard Model of particle physics in a single report. He is best known for his prediction of ...
: "For their work on the weak interactions of charmed particles, a crucial step in the development of the modern theory of the fundamental interactions" * 1986
David Gross David Jonathan Gross (; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. ...
, H. David Politzer, and
Frank Wilczek Frank Anthony Wilczek (; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Direc ...
: "For their analyses of nonabelian gauge theories at short distances, and the implications of these insights for the understanding of the strong interaction between quarks" * 1985
Toshihide Maskawa was a Japanese theoretical physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one quarter of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three famil ...
and Makoto Kobayashi: "For their contributions to the theory of electroweak interactions through their general formulation of fermion mass matrix and their prescient inference of the existence of more than four flavors of quarks"


See also

*
List of physics awards This list of physics awards is an index to articles about notable awards for physics. The list includes lists of awards by the American Physical Society of the United States, and of the Institute of Physics of the United Kingdom, followed by a li ...
*
List of awards named after people This is a list of awards that are named after people. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U - V W Y Z See also * Lists of awards * List of eponyms * List of awards named after governors- ...


References


External links


J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics
(official site)
2010 Sakurai Prize Videos
{{American Physical Society Awards of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Physical Society