The Charpak-Ritz Prize 2019 is awarded to Benoît Deveaud

This year Professor Benoît Deveaud, best known to Switzerland from his former activities at EPFL and since 2017 acting as Vice Provost for Research at École Polytechnique (France), is honored for his "pioneering optical spectroscopy studies dedicated to the ultrafast and quantum optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures."

The significance of the prize is twofold: on the one hand it is intended to show every year the deep connection between the two founder societies, the Société Française de Physique (SFP) and the Swiss Physical Society (SPS), on the other hand it is intended to honour a colleague whose contributions to Physics are considered as of epochal character. In odd years like 2019 a person is elected by the Swiss Physical Society out of three candidates that have been short-listed and nominated by the French Physical Society, in even years this relation is inverted.

The award ceremony will take place at the joint annual meeting of SPS and ÖPG at the University of Zürich on Wednesday morning, 28 August 2019. The prize talk will be held in the morning of the following day. The SPS congratulates Benoît Deveaud warmly on this prestigious award.