American Physical Society Prizes

Spring 2018 American Physical Society Prizes and Awards Announced

Narges Mohammadi

Citation: “for her leadership in campaigning for peace, justice, and the abolition of the death penalty and for her unwavering efforts to promote the human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people, despite persecution that has forced her to suspend her scientific pursuits and endure lengthy incarceration.”

Background:

Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian physicist, engineer, and human rights defender currently serving a 16-year sentence in Evin Prison (Tehran), was born in Zanjan in 1972. She majored in physics at Imam Khomeini University in Qazvin, where she became actively involved in promoting rights and social justice by founding a political student organization and publishing on issues related to women’s and students’ rights. After graduating, she worked both as an engineer with the Iran Engineering Inspection Corporation and as a journalist, highlighting issues related to gender equality. Ms. Mohammadi’s efforts to maintain a career in the sciences while speaking out about human rights abuses were unsuccessful. In 2009 she was dismissed from her position with the Engineering Inspection Corporation. The same year, she was arrested and incarcerated.

COLLEGE PARK, MD, October 23, 2017 – The American Physical Society (APS) has announced the Society’s Spring 2018 prize and award winners, and the 2017 Apker Award, Nicholson Medal, and Sakharov Prize recipients. With few exceptions, APS prizes and awards are open to all members of the scientific community in the U.S. and abroad. These honors are highly regarded, and represent critical recognition from the recipients’ most discerning audience, their peers.

“APS prize and awards committees ponder the nominations of scores of outstanding nominees across the spectrum of physics disciplines. It’s always a tough choice to pick the top contender for any one of the APS honors,” said APS President Laura Greene. “This year, as in the past, the honorees are among the world’s most accomplished, promising and respected scientists and leaders. Please join me in congratulating them for their recognition, and thanking them for their service to science and to society.”

About APS

The American Physical Society is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents over 54,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, MD (Headquarters), Ridge, NY, and Washington, D.C.