Charles Kane and Eugene Mele, both Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professors of Physics from Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, were among the three scientists to receive the annual  John Scott Award for 2019. First bestowed in 1822, the prize was endowed by John Scott, a chemist and pharmacist from Scotland, in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Awardees receive a medal and a $10,000 cash prize.

Drs. Kane and Mele were recognized for their mathematical prediction of a new class of electronic materials called topological insulators, widely expected to be useful in future generations of ultrafast computers. In a landmark 2005 paper, the pair used theoretical physics to demonstrate that such materials should exist. The first such substances were created two years later by a team of German scientists.

Drs. Kane and Mele have received a number of awards for their work on topology and symmetry in physics, including the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (Almanac October 23, 2018) and the 2019 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category (Almanac March 26, 2019).

The Scott Awards are given each year by the Board of Directors of City Trusts, a group that manages dozens of charitable trusts for which the City of Philadelphia has been named as trustee. The winners are chosen based on recommendations from a panel of scientists—a group that includes representatives from Temple and Drexel Universities and the University of Pennsylvania.