image: Junichiro Kono is the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, physics and astronomy and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University.
Credit: (Photo by Jorge Vidal/Rice University)
HOUSTON – (Nov. 5, 2025) – Rice University applied physicist Junichiro Kono has been awarded the American Physical Society’s 2026 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids.
The biennial prize recognizes outstanding optical research that leads to breakthroughs in the condensed matter sciences. Kono is being honored “for pioneering contributions to optical physics, light-condensed matter interactions and photonic applications of nanosystems, including artificial quantum structures and carbon-based nanomaterials.”
Kono’s research explores how light interacts with materials at the nanoscale and could lay the groundwork for new kinds of light-based technologies, from faster and more efficient electronics to quantum communication and sensing systems that operate at the limits of physical precision. His group has revealed new optical phenomena in semiconductors and carbon nanostructures, advancing understanding in photonics and quantum optics using state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques.
Their discoveries include the first observation of superfluorescence in a solid, quantum effects in carbon nanotubes under high magnetic fields and demonstrations of ultrastrong light-matter coupling in terahertz cavities — an area known as cavity quantum electrodynamics. This last line of work, which examines how vacuum electromagnetic fields can alter a material’s fundamental properties simply by enclosing it in a cavity, represents one of the most exciting directions in condensed matter physics today.
“This recognition means a great deal because it highlights the collaborative nature of discovery,” Kono said. “Much of our work has been driven by curiosity — by the simple question of how far we can push the interaction between light and matter. It has been a privilege to explore that frontier with such talented students and colleagues.”
Kono is the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, physics and astronomy and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. He also directs the Smalley-Curl Institute and has established multiple international education programs, including NanoJapan and TOMODACHI STEM@Rice, which provide research opportunities for U.S. and Japanese students in science and engineering.
The Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids is awarded biennially in even-numbered years as a memorial to physicist Frank Isakson.
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About Rice:
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes’ exclusive list of “New Ivies.”