The Paul Drude Award is traditionally the main recognition at the ICSE conference series, given to a young scientist for exceptional contributions to the development and application of spectroscopic ellipsometry.
- Honors significant contributions to the advancement of ellipsometry.
- The applicant shall hold a PhD at the time of application for no more than 10 years.
- $1,000 prize
- Sponsored by AIP Publishing.
ICSE-10 Paul Drude Awardee
The ICSE-10 Award Committee proudly announces the winner of the Paul Drude Award competition, sponsored by AIP Publishing:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA)
For the achievement of having demonstrated and determined unambiguous structural and optical relationships for chiral and achiral nanostructured metamaterials using computational engineering, nanostructure material preparation, and spectroscopic ellipsometry.
Ufuk Kiliç earned his B.Sc. in Physics from Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, in 2009, where he graduated first in his class. He went on to earn his M.Sc. from Bogazici University, Istanbul, in 2012, where he also pursued doctoral research in spintronics until 2014. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) in 2021. Following his role as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow under the Emerging Quantum Materials and Technologies (EQUATE) program (2021–2023), he was appointed Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2023. Dr. Kiliç’s research bridges advanced nanofabrication, optical spectroscopy, and electromagnetic modeling to develop novel photonic and quantum metamaterials. His contributions to these fields have appeared in prestigious journals, with multiple works featured on journal covers, and have earned him several honors and awards, including the 2024 MIND Postdoctoral Award from the American Vacuum Society’s Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division (MIND), the 2022 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship for Promising Young Investigators, and the 2021 Society of Vacuum Coaters Foundation Scholarship awarded in honor of Nobel Laureate John B. Fenn.
History of the Paul Drude Award
The Paul Drude Award is given to a young scientist for exceptional contributions to the development and application of spectroscopic ellipsometry. The Award was introduced at the Fourth International Conference of Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (ICSE-IV) for the first time, and is intended to be given at each of the following ICSE events. The Award consists of a certificate and a monetary prize of USD 1000. The Award winner is chosen by the Selection Committee.
The Paul Drude Award is named in honor of Paul Karl Ludwig Drude (1867 – 1906), who invented and first applied ellipsometry. Reflecting Drude’s oeuvre related to the electron- conductivity model, emphasis is also placed on spectroscopically determining and understanding the interaction of light with matter. The Award is presented by the Award Committee Chair at a ceremonial session of ICSE, followed by an invited presentation by the prizewinner. The Awardee is someone who was of age 35 or younger when the recognized work was performed. Nominations are solicited from the ellipsometry community, to be submitted to the Committee Secretary by the deadline provided. After reviewing the nominations, the Award winner is chosen by the Selection Committee.
Previous Winners of the Paul Drude Award
| Peter Petrik | Research Centre for Natural Sciences (Hungary) | ICSE-4 2007 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Tino Hofmann | University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA) | ICSE-5 2010 Albany, USA |
| Vanya Darakchieva | Linköping University (Sweden) | ICSE-6 2013 Kyoto, Japan |
| Oriol Arteaga | University of Barcelona (Spain) | ICSE-7 2016 Berlin, Germany |
| Christoph Cobet | Kepler University (Austria) | ICSE-7 2016 Berlin, Germany |
| Eva Bittrich | Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden (Germany) | ICSE-8 2019 Barcelona, Spain |
| Chris Sturm | University of Leipzig (Germany) | ICSE-8 2019 Barcelona, Spain |
| Alyssa Mock | Weber State University Ogden (USA) | ICSE-9 2022 Beijing, China |
| Honggang Gu | Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan (China) | ICSE-9 2022 Beijing, China |
Application for the Paul Drude Award
The ICSE-10 Award Committee will review applicants and select the award winner(s). The award is given to a young scientist for exceptional contributions to the development and application of spectroscopic ellipsometry. The applicant shall hold a PhD at the time of application for no more than 10 years. The award consists of a certificate and a monetary prize of USD 1000. The 2025 Paul Drude Award is sponsored by Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Applied Physics. The winner(s) shall receive the award at the award ceremony and present an invited lecture at ICSE-10. The application should contain a cover letter, 2-page CV of the candidate, up to 2-page description of the contribution to the field for which the candidate shall be considered, one or more letters of support from colleagues in the field (optional), and a complete list of the candidate’s publications. Nominations for the award should be submitted to the Chair of the Award Committee (icse10@ellipsometry.us and cc vanya.darakchieva@ftf.lth.se) no later than January 1, 2025. Nominations and self-nominations can be made. The award winner will be informed by February 1, 2025.
