Thomas Werkmeister Receives the Prestigious 2026 APS Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award

The American Physical Society (APS) has selected Thomas Werkmeister as the recipient of the 2026 Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award in Experimental Condensed Matter or Materials Physics. This award, one of the highest honors for recent Ph.D. graduates in the field, recognizes Werkmeister's outstanding doctoral research that has significantly contributed to advancements in experimental condensed matter physics, in particular his “pioneering investigation of unusual integer and fractional quantum Hall states in a graphene-based quantum Hall interferometer.” 

Werkmeister received his Ph.D. in May 2025 from Harvard University, advised by Professor Philip Kim, and he is now a Simons Junior Fellow and Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University, mentored by Professor Aravind Devarakonda in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and Professor Cory Dean in the Department of Physics. 

In his doctoral research, Werkmeister designed and fabricated interferometers from graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) lattice of carbon atoms, to measure the quantum phase accumulated by charged particles as they encircle a strong magnetic field, where he successfully measured the fractional charge and braiding phase of emergent “anyons” in fractional quantum Hall states. 

Anyons are unusual particles hypothesized to exist in 2D space that, unlike conventional bosons or fermions, can be used to encode and manipulate quantum information through a pair-wise exchange process termed “braiding”. Braiding-based quantum processing has attracted considerable attention as a promising route towards fault-tolerant quantum computing. By experimentally demonstrating the existence of the simplest type of anyons in fractional quantum Hall states, Werkmeister’s work opens the door for developing fault-tolerant qubits that leverage braided anyons in 2D materials. 

Building on his groundbreaking Ph.D. work addressing long-standing questions surrounding fractional quantum Hall physics and topological order more broadly, Werkmeister is now developing expertise in the synthesis of novel quantum materials, in particular superconductors. He will incorporate these new materials into quantum devices that utilize their unique properties. Through this combination, he aims to advance the frontiers of fundamental physics and ultimately develop new technologies that take advantage of quantum coherence. 

“I am deeply grateful for the mentorship of my Ph.D. adviser, Philip Kim, and for the very supportive and inspirational lab environment that he built. I also thank my many collaborators over the years, from whom I learned a great deal”, says Werkmeister. 

The award will be formally presented at the APS March Meeting in 2026, highlighting Werkmeister's remarkable contributions to science and his potential to lead future innovations in materials physics. This accolade underscores the American Physical Society's commitment to supporting emerging talents who push the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

You can read more about Werkmeister’s research here.