Göran Scharmer is to receive the prize ‘for his pioneering work to reveal the sun in a radically new way. In the “spirit of Lennart Nilsson”, he has succeeded in making visible what was previously hidden from us. His unique close-up images of the sun combine research of outstanding quality with aesthetic beauty,’ as the Board’s verdict goes.
Göran Scharmer (b. 1951) has been engaged in solar research since 1984. His work to develop the concept and design of the new ‘Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope’ (SST) has permitted close-ups of the Sun — an acknowledged scientific breakthrough. These photographs have been published in leading magazines: Science, Nature and National Geographic Magazine. In 2002, Science included the image series in its account of advances in adaptive optics, which were cited among the ten major scientific accomplishments of the year. Göran Scharmer is the Director of the Institute for Solar Physics, part of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and his research is conducted largely in the Canary Islands where the SST is located.
The Award, which is for SEK 100,000, will be presented in the course of Karolinska Institutet’s annual installation ceremony in Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on Thursday 4 November.
Information about the Award and its winner, along with a range of illustrated reading matter, may be found at the Karolinska Institutet web site, www.ki.se. The material will be freely available on the occasion of the LENNART NILSSON AWARD presentation.
For further details, please apply to:
– photographer Staffan Larsson, Karolinska University Hospital, tel. 46-70-484-0091
– photographer Jacob Forsell, tel. 46-70-744-78-78
– Professor Lennart Möller, Karolinska Institutet, Novum, tel. 46-8-608-9189 or 46-70-554-0924.
