Penn physicists Charles Kane and Eugene Mele of SAS have been named winners of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. They will share the $3 million award for new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surface.

Dr. Kane and Dr. Mele, both Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professors of Physics in the department of physics and astronomy, have long collaborated, sharing ideas and predictions in their field of condensed matter physics. Their theoretical contributions introduced a new class of materials known as topological insulators. These materials have the unique characteristic of being electrical insulators on their interior but have surfaces that are unavoidably conducting.

This duality could allow the incorporation of topological insulators into electronics with high efficiency or provide a foundation for enabling super-fast quantum computing.

Topological insulators also offer a window into deep questions about the nature of matter. They exhibit emergent particle-like excitations that are similar to the fundamental particles of physics but can be created and controlled in the laboratory in ways that fundamental particles cannot.

Dr. Mele’s work has been recognized with the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, the Europhysics Prize of the European Physical Society and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Kane has received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, the Dirac Medal and the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize.

Founded in 2012 and sponsored by Sergey Brin; Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg; Ma Huateng; Yuri and Julia Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, the Breakthrough Prizes honor fundamental discoveries in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics that are transforming the world. Dr. Kane and Dr. Mele will receive the award on November 4.