FRIB’s Witek Nazarewicz awarded 2025 Marian Smoluchowski Medal

Witek Nazarewicz, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University (MSU), has received the 2025 Marian Smoluchowski Medal from the Polish Physical Society for his “outstanding contribution to the advancement of the theory of atomic nuclei and to nuclear physics.” Nazarewicz has faculty appointments at FRIB and in the MSU College of Natural Science’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and is chief scientist at FRIB.

The Marian Smoluchowski Medal was established in 1965 and is the highest honor granted by the Polish Physical Society. Named after physicist Marian Smoluchowski, a pioneer of statistical physics, whose research on the random movement of particles in fluids helped shape the understanding of diffusion, the award honors exceptional scientific achievement in physics and is open to scientists of any nationality or institutional affiliation. 

“This is a well-deserved honor that reflects Witek’s long-standing contributions to nuclear theory and the larger physics community,” said FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher. “At FRIB, his scientific leadership and thoughtful guidance continue to make a meaningful impact, and we’re proud to celebrate this recognition with him.”

“I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected for this award, which came as a complete surprise,” said Nazarewicz. “This recognition is very special to me, as it has been awarded by my colleagues, fellow physicists.”

Throughout his career, Nazarewicz has held academic and research positions around the world, including professorships at Warsaw University in Poland, the University of Tennessee, and visiting appointments at institutions in Europe, Asia, and the United States. From 1999 to 2012, he was scientific director at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and later served as a UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow at ORNL.

He is a fellow of several major scientific societies, including the American Physical Society, the United Kingdom Institute of Physics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His scholarly output includes around 500 peer-reviewed publications and more than 36,000 citations according to Web of Science, and he is among the most highly-cited nuclear theorists.

The medal is presented biennially during the Congress of Polish Physicists. Nazarewicz will be presented with his award at the 2025 ceremony on 6 September in Katowice, Poland.

Michigan State University (MSU) operates the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), with financial support from and furthering the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics.