The Ammodo Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) have announced the names of eight scientists who are to receive the Ammodo KNAW Award in 2015. Delft QT Professor Ronald Hanson is one of them. All eight winners will receive a cash prize of EUR 300,000.- to spend on fundamental research.

Ronald Hanson, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor of Quantum Physics, revisits old dogmas and Einstein's world view. By manipulating individual atoms and electrons, he manages to break through old barriers – for example, he was the first person in the world to communicate information between computer chips without displacement of matter or light. Ronald Hanson obtained his PhD (cum laude) in Delft and had postdoctoral positions in Delft and at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His previous awards include an NWO Vidi grant and an ERC Starting Grant. In 2010, he was also elected to the KNAW Young Academy.

The Ammodo KNAW Award was established to encourage unfettered, fundamental scientific research in the Netherlands across the entire scientific spectrum. Now awarded for the first time, the Ammodo KNAW Award will be presented every other year to eight internationally recognised researchers in four fields: Biomedical Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. The Award is intended for researchers who obtained their PhDs in the past fifteen years and who are associated with a Dutch university or research institute.

The eight 2015 winners were selected from 114 nominations. In the years to come, the winners will use their award to explore new avenues of fundamental research. Ammodo and the KNAW hope that the prizes will contribute to the development of scientific research in the Netherlands by encouraging talented researchers at a crucial stage of their academic careers. The award ceremony will take place on 11 March 2015.