Director's Postdoctoral Fellow Wins Prestigious Otto Hahn Award

Contact: Todd Hanson, (505) 665-2085 (99-088)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 2, 1999 -- Konstantin Kladko of the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has been awarded the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal for Young Scientists by the Max Planck Society of Germany. The medal, and its accompanying stipend, will be awarded to Kladko at the society's annual General Assembly on June 9 in Dortmund, Germany.

"I am very pleased to be recognized like this," said Kladko. "The Otto Hahn Medal is usually only given to Germans, but I am from the Ukraine. It was quite a surprise."

The award is being given for Kladko's work in nonlinear studies and electron correlations in condensed matter physics. As part of his doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Kladko found a way to describe quantum solid-state systems -- magnets, superconductors, heavy fermion systems -- by effective classical models. This promising research work lead to his being named a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow in 1998.

"This is the kind of world-class scientific talent that Los Alamos National Laboratory typically attracts," said Laboratory Director John Browne. "Bringing bright young scientists like Konstantin to work at the Laboratory is just one of the reasons for keeping alive our international scientific collaborations."

Founded in 1948, the Max Planck Society is a non-profit scientific organization affiliated with the Max Planck Institutes. The Society awards the Otto Hahn Medal annually to young scientists in recognition of outstanding scientific achievement. In addition to a stipend, the award gives winners preference for grants enabling them to conduct research abroad for one year. Since its inception in 1978, the Otto Hahn Medal has been awarded to 319 young men and women for their outstanding scientific achievement.

Otto Hahn, winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize for chemistry, became the director of the Max Planck Society when it was established in 1948 as the direct successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society founded in 1911.