The Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award is awarded by the Gothenburg Physics Centre to a scientist who has made a breakthrough discovery in physics.
About Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner was a researcher in Berlin from 1907 to 1938, when she was forced to flee to Sweden, where she came to work for 20 years. As a woman she was initially not allowed in the laboratories where men worked and later she had a hard time getting a regular academic position. With these qualifications, she was still one of the leading nuclear physicists in the world. After her escape to Sweden, she was the first to understand nuclear fission when she during a stay in Kungälv Christmas in 1938 , along with her nephew Otto Frisch, could explain the results that Otto Hahn, her colleague in Berlin, sent her.
Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award
The Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award is not only about awarding well merited physicists, but also to enrich the scientific environment in Gothenburg. People belonging to either of Gothenburg Physics Center's four departments can nominate for the award.
The award was established in 2006 by the Department of Physics at University of Gothenburg and holds the honor, a monetary prize of EUR 3000 and a piece of art. In conjunction with the award ceremony, that takes place in September every year, the laureate holds a lecture in memory of the nuclear physicist Lise Meitner.
Laureate of the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award 2026: Dr. Masato Sagawa
The Gothenburg Physics Centre’s Lise Meitner Award committee proudly presents Dr. Masato Sagawa, pioneer of magnetic materials, as the laureate of the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award 2026!
He is awarded “for the discovery of sintered Nd–Fe–B permanent magnets, which transformed magnetic materials and enabled energy-efficient technologies.”
Dr. Sagawa made the decisive physics-based leap that enabled high-performance, anisotropic Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets. He showed how introducing a light interstitial element, boron, can expand the iron lattice and strengthen ferromagnetic exchange. This led to the Nd2Fe14B compound, combining exceptionally strong magnetic anisotropy with high magnetization. He also established the high-performance processing route based on powder metallurgy and grain alignment.
Today, Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets underpin modern electrification through high-efficiency motors and generators for electric vehicles and wind power. They have also enabled key advances in information technology, most notably by making compact, high-performance hard-disk-drive actuators and motors possible at scale.
Johan Åkerman (University of Gothenburg) nominated Dr. Masato Sagawa.
Award ceremony and symposium
The award ceremony and following lecture by the laureate will take place on September 10 at 15.15-16.30 in Kollektorn, Chalmers.
A symposium in the honour of the laureate will take place on September 11 at 9-17 in Kollektorn, Chalmers.
Previous laureates
The following physicists have been awarded the Gothenburg Lise Meitner Award:
- 2025 Tomoko M. Nakanishi: She wants to understand the wisdom of plants
- 2024 Albert-László Barabási: "I am driven by the desire to advance the field of physics"
- 2023 Nicola Spaldin: "Receives Lise Meitner Award for novel research on multiferroics"
- 2021 Ferenc Mezei: “Most of my research has focused on things that could be useful for others"
- 2020 Anne L'Huillier*: She sheds light on what happens in a trillionth of a second
- 2019 Austen Angell
- 2018 Chandrashekhar Joshi
- 2017 Françoise Combes
- 2016 Klaus Blaum
- 2015 Ivan Schuller
- 2014 Ewine F. van Dishoeck
- 2013 Mildred Dresselhaus
- 2012 Werner Nahm
- 2010/11 Stefan W. Hell*
- 2009 Renata Kallosh
- 2008 I. K. Yanson
- 2007 Pierre Ramond
- 2006 Robert Marc Friedman
* Stefan W. Hell received the Nobel prize in Chemistry 2014 "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”. Anne L'Huillier received the Nobel prize in Physics 2023 for “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.
The prize was not awarded in 2022, due to the corona pandemic already delaying the awarding of the 2020 and 2021 prize.
Lecture recordings
Recorded lectures during the symposium 2024
See recordings of the lectures held in the honour of laureate Albert-László Barabási.
Nominations for the award
Members of the Gothenburg Physics Centre can nominate for the award. February 1 is the strict deadline each year for nominations for that year's award.
More information is found on Chalmers' Intranet (login in using Chalmers ID, CID):