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is awarded to
"We are deeply honoured to receive the 2013 Brockhouse Medal. Being recognized by the community for the work that we love is a true privilege. It is with great gratitude that we share this award not only together, but also with the extended research team from whom we have had the opportunity to learn." winner citation
The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2013 CAP/DCMMP Brockhouse Medal is awarded to James Forrest / Kari Dalnoki-Veress, University of Waterloo and McMaster University respectively, in recognition of for their outstanding collaborative work in the physics of macromolecules in thin films, as well as near surfaces as interfaces. announcement
Kari Dalnoki-Veress and Jamie Forrest are internationally renowned experts in the field of soft condensed matter physics. They have made seminal contributions to problems pertaining to dynamics and morphology of confined soft materials. They are trail-blazers in setting new research methodologies to study soft condensed matter systems in thin films as well as near surfaces and interfaces. They began their work together at the University of Guelph in John Dutcher's group. This led to ground breaking work published in a 1996 Physical Review Letters article (co-authored with J.R. Stevens and J.R. Dutcher, University of Guelph), in which they report on the discovery that the glass transition temperature of very thin polymer films can be dramatically renormalized by the film thickness. Their discovery and continuing work on how thickness can dramatically affect the glass transition of polymer thin films has had significant repercussions in the field of polymer physics. It attracted the attention of P.G. de Gennes (Physics Nobel Prize, 2001) who brought it to the attention of the broader community, hence motivating numerous researchers to take on the investigation of that phenomenon – a worldwide research activity that has remained unabated for 15 years. In addition to their collaborative investigation of the polymer glass transition, they have each gone to impact the field individually, but always from benefitting synergistically from each other’s expertise, advice and critique. For example, using an elegant method employing gold nanoparticles, Forrest illustrated in a Science 2008 paper why dynamics in very thin films can be so rapid. In a 2004 Physical Review Letter, Dalnoki-Veress introduced a brilliant methodology combining spin-coated thin polymer films on silicon and advanced image processing techniques to demonstrate a rare example of homogeneous crystallization. They are careful and gifted experimentalists with a deep insight in the physics of soft condensed matter. They are among the world leaders in the field of polymer films and their studies are fundamental and impactful to the work of theorists and experimentalists in the condensed matter physics and materials communities. Between the two of them, they have established a vibrant effort in experimental soft matter physics and have helped give Canadian soft matter physics a very solid international reputation. nominator citation