Dr Jan Knapp has been honoured with a prestigious award for his breakthrough research conducted during his time at the University.

Dr Knapp received the prestigious Bryan R. Coles Prize 2025 award in recognition of his transformative PhD research in quantum materials.

Dr Jan Knapp has been honoured with a prestigious award for his breakthrough research conducted during his time at the University.

Dr Knapp received the Bryan R. Coles Prize 2025 award at the International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems 2025 in recognition of his transformative PhD research in quantum materials. 

As part of his postgraduate research at the Department of Physics at Royal Holloway, Dr Knapp made a series of landmark discoveries in the field of low-temperature physics and his research led to the identification of a new magnetic quantum state.

Dr Knapp said: “My time at Royal Holloway was transformative. It gave me the freedom to explore bold ideas and the support to turn them into real discoveries. I’m excited to build on that foundation in the future, developing tools to probe quantum matter at the lowest temperatures imaginable.”

Professor John Saunders, his PhD supervisor at Royal Holloway in the Department of Physics, added: “Jan’s work at Royal Holloway was nothing short of ground-breaking and he was a key member of the team. 

“His ability to uncover new physical phenomena and interpret them with clarity is rare. I’m incredibly proud to see his contributions recognised on the international stage.”

Dr Knapp has also been awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, where he will continue his exploration of strongly correlated electron systems.