The European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) EU-40 Materials Prize is reserved for researchers showing exceptional promise as leaders in materials science, having performed the research for which this prize is awarded while working in Europe.

The 2019 winner is Laura Na Liu, Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Universität Heidelberg, Germany. Liu received her PhD degree in physics at Universität Stuttgart in 2009, working on three-dimensional complex plasmonics at optical frequencies. In 2010, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2011, she joined Rice University as the Texas Instruments Visiting Professor. At the end of 2012, she obtained a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and became an independent group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. She joined Universität Heidelberg in 2015.

Liu’s research interest is multidisciplinary. She works at the interface between nanoplasmonics, biology, and chemistry. Her group focuses on developing sophisticated and smart plasmonic nanosystems for answering structural biology questions as well as catalytic chemistry questions in local environments.

MRS and E-MRS have agreed to highlight achievements of the EU-40 Materials Prize recipient and the MRS Mid-Career Researcher recipient, respectively. MRS would like to thank E-MRS for this important transatlantic exchange