Kenneth G. Wilson Award
for Excellence in Lattice Field Theory

About the Award

Since its inception in 2011, the annual Kenneth G. Wilson Award for Excellence in Lattice Field Theory has recognized physicists who have made recent, outstanding contributions to lattice field theory.

The award is presented each year at the Lattice International Conference, recognizing research that made an important contribution to lattice field theory within three years prior to the conference. Physicists honored with this award receive:

  • A certificate citing the contributions of the recipient
  • A modest monetary award
  • An invitation to present their cited work in a short plenary talk at the next conference (with the conference registration fee waived)

The award is named after Nobel Laureate Kenneth Wilson (1936–2013), who founded lattice gauge theory in 1974, permitting such theories to be studied numerically using powerful computers. Wilson endorsed the first award by writing a letter to the community reaffirming the importance and research challenges in this field of physics.

Ken Wilson profile

Recipients

Antoine Gérardin

For outstanding work on first-principles computations of hadronic contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.

Selection Committee

  • Margarita García Pérez (chair)
  • Swagato Mukherjee (vice-chair)
  • Maarten Golterman
  • Takashi Kaneko
  • Liuming Liu
  • David Schaich
  • Phiala Shanahan (2020 recipient)

Yong Zhao

For fundamental contributions to calculations of parton physics on lattice.

Selection Committee

  • James Zanotti (chair)
  • Margarita Garcia Perez (vice-chair)
  • Xu Feng
  • Maarten Golterman
  • Luchang Jin (2019 recipient)
  • Marina Marinkovic
  • David Schaich

Maxwell T. Hansen

For pushing the boundary of finite volume quantum field theories.

Selection Committee

  • Kari Rummukainen, chair
  • James Zanotti, vice-chair
  • Martha Constantinou
  • Zohreh Davoudi, 2018 award recipient
  • Xu Feng
  • Taku Izubuchi
  • Marina Marinkovic

Phiala Shanahan

For excellence in the study of hadrons and nuclei in lattice QCD and for pioneering the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to lattice field theory.

In light of the cancellation of the Lattice 2020 conference due to the pandemic, the 2020 award ceremony will be a virtual colloquium hosted by the Bonn group (the Lattice 2020 LOC) during their Bethe colloquium series on November 12, 2020, at 16:15 Central European Time (10:15 a.m. US Eastern Time).

Selection Committee

  • Aida El-Khadra, chair
  • Kari Rummukainen, vice-chair
  • Raúl Briceño
  • Sara Collins
  • Martha Constantinou
  • Taku Izubuchi
  • Masakiyo Kitazawa

Luchang Jin

For his outstanding contributions to the calculation of the hadronic light-by-light scattering component of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.

Selection Committee

  • Julius Kuti, chair
  • Aida El-Khadra, vice-chair
  • Antonin Portelli, 2016 recipient
  • Gert Aarts
  • Sara Collins
  • Masakiyo Kitazawa
  • Chuan Liu

Zohreh Davoudi

For fundamental contributions to lattice field theory in a finite volume that are essential for performing lattice simulations of complex systems.

Selection Committee

  • Christine Davies, chair
  • Julius Kuti, vice-chair
  • Antonin Portelli, 2016 recipient
  • Chuan Liu
  • Stefan Sint

Read the 2018 award press release

Raul Briceno

For groundbreaking contributions to the study of resonances using lattice QCD.

Selection Committee

  • Shoji Hashimoto, chair
  • Christine Davies, vice-chair
  • Stefan Meinel, 2015 recipient
  • Silas Beane
  • Stefan Sint

Read the 2017 award press release

Antonin Portelli

For outstanding contributions to our understanding of electromagnetic effects on hadron properties.

Selection Committee

  • Hartmut Wittig, chair
  • Shoji Hashimoto, vice-chair
  • Gergely Endrödi, 2014 recipient
  • Anna Hasenfratz
  • Silas Beane

Read the 2016 conference summary

Stefan Meinel

For substantial and timely contributions in new research directions in physics of the bottom quark using lattice QCD.

Selection Committee

  • Sinya Aoki, chair
  • Hartmut Wittig, vice-chair
  • André Walker-Loud, 2013 recipient
  • Anna Hasenfratz
  • Sinead Ryan

Read the 2015 award summary

Gergely Endrödi

For significant contributions to our understanding of QCD matter in strong magnetic fields and to QCD thermodynamics.

Selection Committee

  • Stephen Sharpe, chair
  • Sinya Aoki, vice-chair
  • Norman Christ, 2012 recipient
  • Maria Paola Lombardo
  • Sinead Ryan

Read the 2014 award summary

André Walker-Loud

For significant contributions to our understanding of baryons using lattice QCD and effective field theory.

Selection Committee

  • Andreas Kronfeld, chair
  • Stephen Sharpe, vice-chair
  • Karl Jansen, 2011 recipient
  • Shoji Hashimoto
  • Maria Paola Lombardo

Read the 2013 award summary

T. Blum, P.A. Boyle, N.H. Christ, N. Garron, E. Goode, T. Izubuchi, C. Jung, C. Kelly, C. Lehner, M. Lightman, Q. Liu, A.T. Lytle, R.D. Mawhinney, C.T. Sachrajda, A. Soni, and C. Sturm

For their paper titled “The K → (π π)I=2 Decay Amplitude from Lattice QCD,” which addresses one of the longest-standing challenges in our field. This work has led to the first reliable results in weak kaon decays.

Selection Committee

  • Sinya Aoki
  • William Detmold
  • George Fleming
  • David Lin
  • Harvey Meyer
  • James Zanotti

View the 2012 certificate

  

Xu Feng, Marcus Petschlies, Karl Jansen, and Dru B. Renner

For their paper titled “Two-flavor QCD correction to lepton magnetic moments at leading-order in the electromagnetic coupling,” which describes a new application of lattice methods, applied in a timely fashion, and making an impact on an important (current) discrepancy for the muon magnetic moment.

Selection Committee

  • Michael Buchoff
  • Luigi Del Debbio
  • George Fleming
  • Phillippe de Forcrand
  • Rajiv Gavai
  • Shoji Hashimoto
  • Jim Hetrick
  • Karl Jansen
  • Frithjof Karsch
  • Joe Kiskis
  • Derek Leinweber
  • John Negele
  • Kostas Orginos
  • Giancarlo Rossi
  • Sergey Syritsyn
  • Pavlos Vranas
  • Joe Wasem
  • James Zanotti

View the 2011 certificate

View the 2011 award presentation slides

Photos

Presenter of the 2011 award with the award slide on a screen behind him.
Award recipients receiving their award.
Three of the 2011 award recipients.

Nominate

To recognize outstanding contributions in lattice field theory.

The prize is given annually and consists of a certificate citing the contributions of the recipient, a modest monetary award, and an invitation to present the cited work in a short plenary talk at the 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory to be held in in Fermilab on July 30–August 5, 2023. (The registration fee for the conference will be waived.)

The award recognizes outstanding physicists who are within seven years of completing their PhD at the time of initial nomination, plus any career breaks. The research recognized could be either a single piece of work or the sum of several contributions.

This year, for the first time, the committee will consider self-nominations in addition to the standard nomination procedure. Both kinds of nomination will be treated in exactly the same way.

Nominations should be made following the template, which includes:

  • The nominee’s CV
  • The nominee’s research achievements. This can be filled in either by the nominee (in consultation with their referees) or by the nominator (in consultation with the nominee). This section should not exceed 500 words.
  • A list of up to ten relevant publications, with a sentence for each describing the contribution of the nominee to the work.
  • The names and emails of two persons who can provide reference letters (one of them should be the nominator in case there is one). They should send their letters, before the nomination deadline, directly to the chair of the award committee with subject line: KWLA reference letter (name of the nominee).

The use of the template is optional, but nominations should include all the relevant information in the same order and keeping to the word limits requested.

The nomination should include a proposed one-sentence citation justifying the award.

Reference letters should explain and justify why the nominee should receive the award.

Each year, a panel of voluntary judges reviews the nominations.

Nominations are reviewed in the year received and remain under consideration for up to two additional years. (Self-)Nominators and reference writers may submit updated information for nominees who will be considered a second or third time.

Nominations of scientists from all nations are solicited. Recipients are not eligible for a second award.

2023 Nomination Information

First-time nominees for the 2023 award must have received a PhD (or equivalent) after December 31, 2015, with suitable adjustment in cases with career breaks. As stated above, nominations will be reviewed in the year received and remain under consideration for up to two additional years.

Nominations and reference letters should be emailed to the chair of the selection committee before May 21, 2023.

  • Email address: margarita.garcia [at] csic.es (margarita[dot]garcia[at]csic[dot]es)
  • Subject line: KWLA nomination (name of the nominee)

2023 Selection Committee

  • Margarita García Pérez (chair)
  • Swagato Mukherjee (vice-chair)
  • Maarten Golterman
  • Takashi Kaneko
  • Liuming Liu
  • David Schaich
  • Phiala Shanahan (2020 recipient)