Capasso, Wilczek, and Zeilinger Share King Faisal Science Prize

At a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, this month, the King Faisal Foundation will present three physicists with the 2005 King Faisal Science Prize (Physics). Federico Capasso, Frank Wilczek, and Anton Zeilinger will split the cash endowment of 750 000 riyals ($200 000), and each will receive a certificate handwritten in Diwani calligraphy and a commemorative gold medal.

The Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University, Capasso was praised by the foundation as “one of the most creative and influential physicists in the world,” The citation acknowledges his international reuptation for having designed and demonstrated the quantum cascade laser. This lasing technique, “perhaps the most important development in laser physics during the last decade, signifies an imaginative breakthrough in this field” that enables “a remarkable contribution of excellent solid-state science and laser physics with new solid-state technology.”

Wilczek, Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT, is being recognized for “a host of important contributions to several arenas.” Singling out his “elucidation of quantum chromodynamics as the correct model for the strong force,” the citation says that “this masterpiece, alongside his other seminal achievements, elevates him to the ranks of the world’s most prominent scientists.”

Zeilinger, writes the foundation, has made “contributions ranging from epistemological and foundational research to the forefront of modern quantum technology.” A professor of physics at the University of Vienna and codirector of the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Zeilinger has applied “the laws of quantum mechanics for the teleportation of the properties of a particle, heralded as a scientific milestone” and “successfully identified quantum cryptography as the only current method guaranteeing the confidentiality of a transmitted message as governed by natural laws.”