100 Years of Spin and Lorentz Medal Award Ceremony
PHYSICS
In 1925, two young physicists from Leiden University, George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit, proposed a radical idea: spin. Their bold hypothesis quickly came to play a key role in physics and formed the basis for later breakthroughs in quantum mechanics. We are celebrating the anniversary of this discovery with a symposium.
Symposium 100 Years of Spin
The programme includes a wide variety of lectures: from a story about the history of spin, to expert lectures on spintronics and the application of electron spin in quantum computers, to a lecture on the relationship between quantum mechanics and avant-garde music. Speakers include Martijn van Calmthout, Bart van Wees, Anne-Marije Zwerver and Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin. The host is Sense Jan van der Molen, scientific director of the Leiden Institute of Physics.
The symposium '100 Years of Spin' will take place on 11 December 2025 in the Academy Building of Leiden University.
Presentation of the Lorentz Medal by KNAW
In the afternoon, the prestigious Lorentz Medal will be presented by Robbert Dijkgraaf (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). This medal is usually awarded every four years to scientists who have made a groundbreaking contribution to theoretical physics.
Lorentz Medal awarded to physicist Charles Kane
Press release by KNAW, 3 september 2025
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences will be honouring one of the most significant physicists of our time later this year: Charles Kane, professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania. On 11 December, Kane will receive the Lorentz Medal, the Netherlands' most prestigious award in the field of theoretical physics. Kane is receiving the medal for his visionary research into material properties at the quantum level. His work has radically altered our understanding of quantum physics.
Charles Kane (born 1963) is one of the founding fathers of research into what are known in quantum physics as topological insulators. These are materials that have the remarkable ability to conduct electricity on their surfaces while acting as an electrical insulator in their interior. In 2005, he and co-researcher Eugene Mele developed theories predicting the quantum spin-Hall effect, a new quantum state of matter possessing these properties. In 2007, he and his doctoral student Liang Fu demonstrated that such materials exist and that they can indeed both block and transmit electricity. Hypothetically, this should also allow for the existence of the Majorana particle – the next step in our understanding of quantum materials of this kind.
Kane’s research has laid the foundations for an entirely new field of study and has pioneered the development of new technologies that can be applied in quantum computing. It is not Kane’s ambition to develop practical applications himself, however. As befits a great scientist, he is motivated primarily by his own curiosity. Kane continues to raise new research questions in his quest to gain an even deeper understanding of how materials and electrons interact.
About the Lorentz Medal
This year's Lorentz Medal will be awarded on 11 December in Leiden, in partnership with the Leiden Institute of Physics, part of Leiden University. The date was not chosen at random: it is the date on which, precisely 150 years ago, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz earned his doctorate in mathematics and physics summa cum laude at Leiden University. Lorentz (1853-1928), a Nobel laureate, is regarded as the founder of theoretical physics in the Netherlands.
The medal is generally awarded every four years to a scientist who has made a pioneering contribution to theoretical physics. Previous winners include Max Planck, Gerard ’t Hooft and Frank Wilczek. More than half of the Lorentz Medal recipients were later also awarded a Nobel Prize.