The American Physical Society (APS) recently honored two MIT faculty members — professors Yoel Fink PhD ’00 and Mehran Kardar PhD ’83 — as well as six alumni with prizes and awards for their contributions to physics and academic leadership.
In addition, several MIT faculty members — Professor Jorn Dunkel, Professor Yen-Jie Lee PhD ’11, Associate Professor Mingda Li PhD ’15, and Associate Professor Julien Tailleur — as well as 12 additional alumni were named APS Fellows.
Yoel Fink PhD ’00, the Danae and Vasilis (1961) Salapatas Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, received the Andrei Sakharov Prize “for defending the academic freedom and human rights of scientists working in the U.S.”
The prize, named for physicist and human rights advocate Andrei Sakharov, recognizes scientists whose leadership and impact advance the principles of intellectual freedom and human dignity. Fink’s research focuses on “computing fabrics” — fibers and textiles that sense, communicate, store, and process information. By embedding functionality at the fiber level, fabrics become computing systems that can infer human activity and context while keeping the traditional qualities of garments. These textiles enable noninvasive monitoring of physiological and health conditions, with applications ranging from fetal and maternal health to human performance analytics, injury prevention in challenging environments, and defense.
Mehran Kardar PhD ’83, the Francis Friedman Professor of Physics, received the Lars Onsager Prize “for ground-breaking contributions to statistical physics, including the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation, Casimir forces, active matter, and aspects of biological physics.”
Kardar’s research focuses on how complex behavior emerges from simple interactions in systems both in and far from equilibrium, including stable ones like a still pond and rapidly changing ones such as growing surfaces. The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation, which he helped develop, provides a unifying framework for understanding how randomness and fluctuations shape evolving phenomena, from fluids and interfaces to biological and quantum systems. His work has also advanced the theoretical understanding of disordered materials, soft matter such as polymers and gels, and fluctuation-induced forces — including Casimir forces arising from quantum and thermal effects. More recently, he has applied these ideas to active matter — systems of self-driven units — and biological systems, helping reveal patterns in living and evolving systems.
APS Fellows
Several MIT faculty were elected 2025 APS Fellows:
Jorn Dunkel, MathWorks Professor of Mathematics, is the recipient of the Division of Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Fellowship “for pioneering contributions to statistical, nonlinear, and biological physics, notably in understanding pattern formation in soft matter and biology, cell positioning in tissues, and turbulence in active media.”
Yen-Jie Lee PhD ’11, professor of physics, received the Division of Nuclear Physics Fellowship “for pioneering measurements of jet quenching, medium response and heavy-quark diffusion in the quark-gluon plasma, and for using electron-positron collisions as an innovative control to understand collectivity in small collision systems.”
Mingda Li PhD ’15, associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, is the recipient of the Topical Group on Data Science Fellowship “for pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence with scattering and spectroscopy, enabling breakthroughs in phonons, topological states, optical and time-resolved spectra, and data-driven discovery for quantum and energy applications.”
Julien Tailleur, associate professor of physics, is the recipient of the Division of Soft Matter Fellowship “for foundational theoretical work on motility-induced phase separation and emergent collective behavior in scalar active matter.”
The following additional MIT alumni were also honored as APS Fellows:
- Andrew Cross SM ’05, PhD ’08 (EECS), Division of Quantum Information Fellowship
- Kevin D. Dorfman SM ’01, PhD ’02 (ChemE), Division of Polymer Physics Fellowship
- Geoffroy Hautier PhD ’11 (DMSE), Division of Computational Physics Fellowship
- Douglas J. Jerolmack PhD ’06 (EAPS), Division of Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Fellowship
- Brian Lantz ’92, PhD ’99 (Physics), Division of Gravitational Physics Fellowship
- Valerio Lucarini SM ’03 (EAPS), Topical Group on Physics of Climate Fellowship
- Giles Novak ’81 (Physics), Division of Biological Physics Fellowship
- Steve Presse PhD ’08 (Physics), Division of Biological Physics Fellowship
- Gray Rybka PhD ’07 (Physics), Division of Particles and Fields Fellowship
- Sarah Sheldon ’08, PhD ’13 (Physics, NSE), Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics Fellowship
- Lian Shen ScD ’01 (MechE), Division of Fluid Dynamics Fellowship