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Dr. Igor Herbut, Professor at SFU Physics, was awarded the 2025 on November 18.

Described as a world-leading theoretical physicist, Igor was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field by tackling challenging problems and supporting young scientists.  His discoveries of "universal features in seemlingly different contexts" were especially noted.

The Dresden Physics Prize is a prestigious award established to promote cooperation between the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS) and the Physics Department at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD).  It is geared towards outstanding researchers whose research is of particular interest to scientists in Dresden.

From the Laudation for Prof. Igor Herbut:

"It is particularly nice for a theoretical physicist to discover universal features in seemingly distinct contexts. Igor Herbut is ideally suited to do just that. Igor is a world-leading theoretical physicist with strong mathematical leanings and broad interests in condensed matter, statistical physics, and field theory. His works range from supersymmetry over antiferromagnetic symmetries, Clifford algebras, gauge theories, unconventional quasiparticles, strongly correlated systems, quantum phase transitions, disorder effects, and unconventional superconductivity to applications of graphene. A look at his extensive list of publications quickly uncovers a number of characteristics: First, Igor tackles difficult problems. Or in German: Igor bohrt dicke Bretter. His works combine advanced mathematical methodology with physical insight. Second, he often works together with young scientists. Supporting the next generation is an important issue for Igor.

Two works shall be mentioned as examples. In a Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 146401 (2006)], Igor presented convincing arguments that interacting electrons on the honeycomb lattice exhibit a phase transition in the universality class of the Gross–Neveu model, as a function of the interaction strength. This highly cited paper induced a large number of analytical and numerical studies as well as experiments on graphene. Numerical simulations performed by Igor in collaboration with Fakher Assaad from Würzburg in the framework of the Advanced Study Group Topological Band Structures and Their Instabilities, which Igor led at MPI-PKS from 2012 to 2013, provided impressive confirmation for his nontrivial theoretical predictions.

Together with his postdoc Julia Link, who is now a PI of CRC 1143 at TU Dresden, Igor showed that the breaking of time-reversal symmetry in noncentrosymmetric superconductors generically leads to Fermi surfaces of Bogoliubov quasiparticles (Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 237004 (2020)). This was a rather unexpected result since, other than for centrosymmetric superconductors, there is no reason based on topology why this should happen. Their insight is important for many unconventional superconductors of current interest.

Igor’s textbook A Modern Approach to Critical Phenomena (Cambridge University Press, 2007) is an outstanding example of its genre. It is always nice to read a particularly elegant and insightful exposition of something that one already knows — or should know. What is special about his work is that it combines mathematical elegance and aesthetics of style with physically acceptable explanations. It is thus no surprise that Igor’s book is highly popular with master students, doctoral candidates, and postdocs.

Igor has maintained close ties to MPI-PKS for many years, the Advanced Study Group Topological Band Structures and Their Instabilities has already been mentioned. Igor is a regular visitor to Dresden and is also a member of the senior-level groups at TU Dresden. Two of his former postdocs, Julia Link and Lukas Janssen, who currently leads an Emmy Noether group, are now based in TU Dresden. Igor Herbut thus already represents the purpose of the Physik-Preis Dresden, as expressed on the prize website by Peter Fulde, namely to highlight and foster outstanding research that is of interest to and that strengthens the ties between MPI-PKS and TU Dresden."

Read the  from MPI-PKS.