Announcement of the 4th Heinrich Rohrer Medal Winners

The Award Committee composed of international members has selected the 4th Heinrich Rohrer Medal winners
and the Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science (JVSS) has approved them on Feb. 3, 2024.

Grand Medal:
　Prof. Franz J. Giessibl (Universitat Regensburg, Germany)
　Prof. Wilson Ho (University of California, Irvine, USA)

Rising Medal:
　Dr. Yi Chen (Peking University, China)
　Dr. Miyabi Imai-Imada (RIKEN, Japan)　 　

Please find the details of the winners on the following site: the 4th Heinrich Rohrer Medals (2024)

The award ceremony will be held at ISSS-10 (Oct. 20-24,2024 at Kita-kyushu, Japan), and the winners
will deliver award lecture/talks at ISSS-10.

1. Purpose of the Medal

In order to celebrate the great achievements accomplished by one of the Nobel Laureates in 1986,
Late Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, and also to express our deepest gratitude for his huge contribution to the research
community, and finally to promote further progress in research and development in the field of nanoscience
and nanotechnology, an international prize named after him has been established in 2013 by The Surface
Science Society of Japan (SSSJ) (at present merged as the Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science (JVSS))
in collaboration with IBM Research - Zurich, Swiss Embassy in Japan and Ms. Rohrer.

2. Outline of the Medal

The Heinrich Rohrer Medal is composed of the Grand Medal and the Rising Medal as described below.
The Medal is awarded every three years, in the year of International Symposium on Surface Science (ISSS)
organized by JVSS (scheduled in 2014, 2017, 2020, 2023,...). The award ceremony will be held at ISSS,
and the winners are requested to deliver award lecture/talks at ISSS.
The 4th awarding will be at ISSS-10 in October, 2024.

• Grand Medal goes to researchers who have made distinguished achievements in the field of nanoscience
  and nanotechnology based on surface science, hereby have made significant progress in science and technology.
  The winner of the Grand Medal should be basically one person each time. When, however, there is little to choose
  among the candidates on the basis of achievements, more than one candidate can share the Medal under
  a common topic. The winners can be collaborators. The Medal with a special framed Certificate and the cash
  of JPY 1,000,000 (about US$7,200) will be awarded. If the winners of the Grand Medal are more than one,
  the cash will be shared equally.
  
  
• Rising Medal goes to researchers of 37* or less years old (as of January 1st of the award year) who have
  made outstanding results and are expected to continue to play active roles in the field. The winners of the Rising
  Medal are up to three individuals under different topics each time. The Medal with a special framed Certificate
  and the cash of JPY 300,000 (about US$2,160) will be awarded for each winner.
  * Only for the 4th Rising Medal, this limit is changed to 38 because of the irregular interval of previous ISSS-9 due to COVID-19.

3. Nomination and Selection (for 4th Medals)

JVSS calls for nominations of the candidates all over the world by asking many foreign and domestic researchers,
societies, research institutes and universities covering the fields relating to the Medal.
The nomination should be solely done in personal capacity, not by institutional nomination.
Anyone can nominate the candidates by submitting a nomination letter together with related materials
to the Award Committee through e-mail (rohrermedal@jvss.jp) before October 31, 2023 (closed).
The details for the nomination is shown below.
The candidates are not limited by their nationality, sex, age, and affiliation, while the candidates only for the Rising
Medal should be 37* or less years old as of January 1st of the award year. The deceased cannot be nominated.
Self-nomination is not acceptable.
The Award Committee, which is organized by JVSS, is composed of international members.
The names of committee members will be opened after the selection.
* Only for the 4th Rising Medal, this limit is changed to 38 because of the irregular interval of previous ISSS-9 due to COVID-19.

4. Nomination Procedure

A nomination may be made by anyone qualified to evaluate, highlight, and validate the nominee's accomplishments.
Any individual may submit one nominating or supporting letter for each Medal (Grand Medal or Rising Medal).

Complete package of documents mentioned below should be transmitted electronically
as PDF files (with proper security protection) to the e-mail address (rohrermedal@jvss.jp) before October 31, 2023 (closed).

A Curriculum Vitae or biographical sketch of the nominee and a list of publications and patents will be required
to submit later, if necessary in the selection process.

1. Nomination Letter (for Grand Medal, for Rising Medal) (required);
   
   The letter nominating an individual for the Medal must describe the work for which the award is proposed.
   The significance and the impact of the nominee's accomplishments on the field should be clearly described.
   If the work was performed in collaboration with others, the contributions of the nominee should be clearly stated.
   A proposed citation, a one-sentence synopsis of the reason for selecting the nominee,
   and a list of individuals sending supporting letters, should also be included as indicated in the letter form
   (for Grand Medal, for Rising Medal). The nomination letter should be as detailed as possible with general
   words to allow the Awards Committee, who may be experts in other fields, to evaluate the nominee's contributions.
   
   
2. Appended description (if necessary)
   
   The nominator can add separate sheets for detailed specification of reason of the nomination, if necessary.
   They should not exceed two pages. A summary of research accomplishments citing key papers
   and patents should be included and the inclusion of citation numbers and h-index is strongly recommended.
   
   
3. Supporting Letter(s) (required)
   
   A minimum of one and a maximum of five supporting letters must be arranged by the nominator.
   These can be in arbitrary format, and typically should not exceed one page.
   Their main purpose is to endorse the nomination and to provide additional evidence of the nominee's accomplishments.
   The supporting letters should be written by individuals at institutions other than that of the nominee.
   

5. Invitation to the Official Sponsors

JVSS is inviting enterprises and companies, which are active in the fields relating to
The Medal, to the official sponsors providing funds for operating the Medal.
The funds are for the prize money and other expenses relating with the awarding.
JVSS would like to ask each company to kindly contribute one or more units at JPY500,000/unit.
The official sponsors are stated clearly on the Web page and the certificates of the Medal (see the photos of the link page).
Please contact us below to ask the information and invoice for the donation.

References to previos information
Press release of the foudation of the Medal
Press Release of the Award in Japan

Prospectus_Heinrich Rohrer Medal_(English)
Prospectus_Heinrich Rohrer Medal_(Japanese)


The 1st Heinrich Roher Medals (2014)

The 2nd Heinrich Roher Medals (2017)

The 3rd Heinrich Roher Medals (2020)

Operated with IBM Research-Zurich



Cosponsored by
　　　 　　


Contact:
Secretary-General, JVSS
e-mail: office@jvss.jp, TEL:+81-3-3812-0266, FAX:+81-3-3812-2897,
5F Ishikawa bldg. 5-25-16 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 113-0033
The Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science (JVSS)

Prof. Ken-ichi Fukui, Member of the Committee of International Affairs in JVSS
Department of Materials Engineering, Osaka University, fukui.ken-ichi.es=at=osaka-u.ac.jp