J.C. Séamus Davis, the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor Emeritus in physics in the College of Arts and Sciences has been awarded the 2026 Michael Faraday Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics (IOP) for “outstanding and sustained contributions to experimental physics.” The prize, which includes a gold medal, will be awarded on November 3 at the IOP Awards Dinner in Glasgow, Scotland.

The award committee cited Davis “for the discovery and exploration of macroscopic quantum phenomena and states of matter” and noted that he has been a leading figure in this area of research.

“Davis’ strategic approach has been to devise exceptional instruments and techniques that enable human perception and interrogation of the relevant macroscopic quantum physics, leading to the discovery of novel states and phenomena of quantum matter in many distinct materials systems. This approach has led to numerous noteworthy achievements,” the award committee stated.

“We invented new instruments to visualize materials at a quantum level. Before we pictured in our minds what we believed quantum matter looked like, but we never knew for sure as we could never see it,” Professor Davis told UCC News at University College, Ireland. They learned, he said, that “the quantum world is more complex than our models suggested.”

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.