2015 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MEDAL IN PHYSICS PRESENTED TO CHARLES L. KANE, PH.D. And EUGENE J. MELE, PH.D. And SHOUCHENG ZHANG, PH.D

Modern solid state physics began in 1928 when Felix Bloch established the band theory of solids, which classified, importantly, solid behavior into insulators and conductors, a distinction that underlies all subsequent work in this field. In the work described here, an exotic third possibility has been established. Charles Kane, Eugene Mele, and Shoucheng Zhang showed that there is a third class of materials which are insulators in their bulk, but which must inevitably have gapless surface states, and thus a finite surface conductivity, regardless of surface treatment. An award for this work is a fitting recognition of an exciting discovery which also shows the constructive interaction between theoretical prediction and experimental work in the physics of materials.