Comstock Prize in Physics

The Comstock Prize in Physics is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for recent innovative discovery or investigation in electricity, magnetism, or radiant energy, broadly interpreted."

Honorees must be residents of North America. Named after Cyrus B. Comstock, it has been awarded about every five years since 1913.

List of Comstock Prize winners

Year	Recipient	Citation
1913	Robert A. Millikan
1918	Samuel Jackson Barnett
1923	William Duane	For his work on "relations of fundamental significance...in their bearings upon modern theories of the structure of matter and on the mechanism of radiation."
1928	Clinton J. Davisson	In recognition of his experimental work demonstrating that under certain conditions, electrons behave as we would expect trains of waves to behave.
1933	Percy W. Bridgman	For his investigations leading to increased understanding of the electrical constitution of matter.
1938	Ernest O. Lawrence
1943	Donald W. Kerst	For his pioneer work in connection with the development of the betatron and the results which he obtained with this new and powerful scientific tool.
1948	Merle A.Tuve	For his pioneering work on the upper atmosphere and his development of the electrical pulse method of study; for his pioneering work in nuclear physics utilizing the electrostatic generator; and for his development of the proximity fuse.
1953	William Shockley	For his pioneering investigations and exposition of electric and magnetic properties of solid materials; in particular for his researches in the conduction of electricity by electrons and holes in semiconductors.
1958	Charles H. Townes
1963	C. S. Wu
1968	Leon N Cooper and J. Robert Schrieffer
1973	Robert H. Dicke
1978	Raymond Davis, Jr.
1983	Theodor W. Hänsch and Peter P. Sorokin
1988	Paul C. W. Chu and Maw-Kuen Wu	For discovery of superconductivity in yttrium barium copper oxide and similar compounds above the boiling point of nitrogen -- a major scientific and technological breakthrough.
1993	Charles P. Slichter (shared)	For his seminal contributions to the development and application of magnetic resonance in condensed matter, including the first experimental proof of pairing correlations in superconductors and fundamental studies in surface science and catalysis.
1993	E. L. Hahn (shared)	For his revolutionary discoveries in magnetic resonance and coherent optics, in particular for the Hahn Spin Echo, the Hartman-Hahn Cross-polarization, and self-induced transparency.
1999	John Clarke	For his major contributions to the development of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS) and their use for scientific measurements, especially involving electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetic waves.
2004	John N. Bahcall	For his many contributions to astrophysics, especially his definitive work on solar models and his crucial role in identifying and resolving the solar neutrino problem.
2009	Charles L. Bennett	For his mapping of the cosmic microwave background and determining the universe's age, mass-energy content, geometry, expansion rate, and reionization epoch with unprecedented precision.
2014	Deborah S. Jin	For demonstrating quantum degeneracy and the formation of a molecular Bose‐Einstein condensate in ultra‐cold fermionic atomic gases, and for pioneering work in polar molecular quantum chemistry.
2019	Michal Lipson	For her pioneering contributions to silicon photonics based on high confinement optical structures including the demonstration of electro-optic modulation in silicon, parametric oscillation, and extreme confinement of light in waveguides.
2024	Michel Devoret and Robert Schoelkopf	For the experimental development of 'Circuit QED,' realizing non-linear quantum optics in electrical circuits at the single-photon level and enabling new insights into, and control of, macroscopic quantum systems, quantum measurements, quantum information processing and quantum error correction.

See also

• List of physics awards
• Prizes named after people