Comin Wins Bessel Award
EUR 60,000 supports collaborative research in Germany
MIT Physicist Riccardo Comin has won a 2025 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in recognition of his “outstanding accomplishments in research and teaching,” according to a letter from the Foundation alerting Comin to the honor. He is one of 12 winners of the award, which comes with EUR 60,000 to support a research project of the awardee’s choice at a research institution in Germany.
Says Comin, the Class of 1947 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics:
“I am truly honored and delighted to receive the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation; it’s a wonderful recognition. I am grateful for the flexible funding it offers, and particularly for the opportunity it creates for collaborative work with colleagues in Germany, especially with my nominators and hosts, Ronny Thomale and Giorgio Sangiovanni at the University of Würzburg.
“I believe these kinds of international exchanges are incredibly important for sparking new ideas and moving research forward.”
Comin explores the novel phases of matter that can be found in electronic solids with strong interactions, also known as quantum materials. For example, earlier this year he led a team that for the first time measured the geometry, or shape, of electrons in solids at the quantum level. Scientists have long known how to measure the energies and velocities of electrons in crystalline materials, but until now, those systems’ quantum geometry could only be inferred theoretically, or sometimes not at all.
The award is named for German astronomer and mathematician Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846). It is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
