2026 Medal Winners | francais

The 2026 CAP/DCMMP Brockhouse Medal

is awarded to

Young-June Kim

"I am deeply honoured to receive the CAP Brockhouse Medal and sincerely thank the Canadian condensed matter community for this recognition. I am especially grateful to the many students, postdoctoral fellows, and collaborators, as well as to the mentors and colleagues who have supported me throughout my career." winner quote

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2026 CAP/DCMMP Brockhouse Medal is awarded to Young-June Kim, University of Toronto, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to quantum magnetism, including the discovery that the material alpha-RuCl₃ may realize the topological magnetic state predicted by Alexei Kitaev, and for his leadership in elucidating its properties, culminating in key experimental signatures of a Kitaev spin liquid under high magnetic fields; work that has advanced the search for Majorana fermions and opened promising pathways toward topological quantum computing. announcement

Professor Young-June Kim of the University of Toronto has made profound and far-reaching discoveries in the field of quantum magnetism. In 2014 his group announced the discovery that the material alpha-RuCl3, at temperatures close to absolute zero, may realize a special topological magnetic state first predicted in 2006 by the theorist Alexei Kitaev, of the California Institute of Technology. Professor Kim’s group has played a leading role in elucidating the properties of alpha-RuCl3, leading in 2019 to the announcement by a Japanese research group that it exhibits a key property of the predicted Kitaev spin liquid state, although only at high magnetic fields. A fully-fledged Kitaev spin liquid could have revolutionary implications for quantum computing, because it would host predicted vortex-like excitations called Majorana fermions, which have long been sought by the quantum technologies community.

In addition to his important discoveries in the physics of materials, Professor Kim played a leading role in the development of a new measurement technique called Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering, which is now widely used worldwide in experimental studies of materials. In this technique, high intensity beams of x-rays are shone on a material. The x-rays scatter from electrons deep within the material, and subtle modulations in the spectrum of the scattered x-rays reveal with great clarity the physics of the materials. Partly as a result of Dr. Kim’s innovations, over 100 million dollars in investment has been made, world-wide, to install special beamlines at synchrotron radiation facilities, and the Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering technique has become an important and widely-used physics tool. nominator citation

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