The Wayne B. Nottingham Prize is awarded annually at the Physical Electronics Conference (PEC), a conference that focuses on new research results in the field of surface science and in the sub-fields of physics and chemistry of interfaces. It was established from contributions given in memory of Professor Wayne B. Nottingham of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by many of his friends and associates. The prize currently consists of a certificate and in 1974 was $200 but has increased recently to $1,500, and is awarded to the best student paper presented at the conference. A student paper is defined as a paper based on a Ph.D. thesis whose date of submission to the faculty is no earlier than one year before the meeting at which the Prize is given.
It was first given in March 1966 at MIT and in March thereafter until February 1974 when the PEC was held at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. This adjustment was to avoid overlap in time with the American Physical Society's March meeting which in the 1970s was about 30 times larger than the PEC. Due to the weather in February leading to icy roads and delays in the scheduled events, in 1975 the PEC was moved to June where it still is today.
| Year | Winner(s) | Location | Thesis advisor(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | L.F. Cordes | University of Minnesota | W.T. Peria | |
| 1967 | D. Steiner & J.V. Hollweg | M.I.T & M.I.T | E.P. Gyftopoulous | |
| 1968 | E. Ward Plummer | Cornell University | T.N. Rhodin | |
| 1969 | John C. Tracy | Cornell University | J.M. Blakely | |
| 1970 | J.M. Baker | Cornell University | J.M. Blakely | |
| 1971 | D.P. Smith | Univ. of Minnesota | W.T. Peria | |
| 1972 | W. Henry Weinberg | Univ. of California, Berkeley | R. Merrill | |
| 1973 | J.R. Bower | Bartol Research Foundation | J.M. Chen | |
| 1974 | N.J. Dionne & Torgny Gustafsson | Cornell University & Chalmers Univ. of Technology | T.N. Rhodin & P.O. Nillson | |
| 1975 | L.C. Isett | Cornell University | J.M. Blakely | |
| 1976 | J.A. Knapp | Montana State University | G.A. Lapeyre | |
| 1977 | S.-L. Weng | Univ. of Pennsylvania | E.W. Plummer | |
| 1978 | Gwo-Ching Wang | Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison | M.G. Lagally | |
| 1979 | Wilson Ho | Univ. of Pennsylvania | E.W. Plummer | |
| 1980 | R. Difoggio & Harry J. Levinson | Univ. of Chicago & Univ. of Pennsylvania | R. Gomer & E.W. Plummer | |
| 1981 | Ruud M. Tromp | FOM Institut | F.W. Saris | |
| 1982 | P.O. Hahn | Leibniz University Hannover | M. Henzler | |
| 1983 | R. Raue | Cologne and KFA Julich | G. Guntherodt & M. Campagna | |
| 1984 | M. Onellion | Rice University | G.K. Walters | |
| 1985 | K. Gibson & J.W.M. Frenken | Univ. of Chicago & FOM Institut | S.J. Sibener & J.F. van der Veen | |
| 1986 | S.M. Yalisove | Univ. of Pennsylvania | W.R. Graham | |
| 1987 | John D. Beckerle | M.I.T. | S.T. Ceyer | |
| 1988 | Lee J. Richter | Cornell University | W. Ho | |
| 1989 | J.-K. Zuo | R.P.I. | G.-C. Wang | |
| 1990 | Y.-W. Mo | Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison | M.G. Lagally | |
| 1991 | Brian S. Swartzentruber | Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison | M.B. Webb | |
| 1992 | Thomas Michely | KFA, Julich | G. Comsa | |
| 1993 | Anna K. Swan | Boston University | M. El-Batanouny | |
| 1994 | G. Rosenfeld | KFA, Julich | G. Comsa | |
| 1995 | Marcus K. Weldon | Harvard University | C. Friend | |
| 1996 | J. Carpinelli & B. Kohler | Univ. of Tennessee & Fritz Haber Inst. | E.W. Plummer & M. Scheffler | |
| 1997 | D. Gragson | Univ. of Oregon | G. Richmond | |
| 1998 | Barry C. Stipe & M.S. Hoogeman | Cornell University & FOM Inst./Leiden Univ. | W. Ho & J.W.M. Frenken | |
| 1999 | Kalman Pelhos | Rutgers University | T.E. Madey | |
| 2000 | Lincoln Lauhon | Cornell University | W. Ho | |
| 2001 | Gayle Thayer | Sandia Livermore & UC Davis | R. Hwang & S. Chiang | |
| 2002 | Denis Potapenko | Rutgers University | B.J. Hinch | |
| 2003 | John P. Pierce | Univ. of Tennessee & ORNL | E.W. Plummer & Jian Shen | |
| 2004 | Peter Wahl | Max Planck Inst. for Solid State Physics | K. Kern | |
| 2005 | Nathan Guisinger | Northwestern University | Mark C. Hersam | |
| 2006 | Mustafa Murat Özer & Paul C. Snijders | University of Tennessee and Delft University of Technology | J.R. Thompson and H.H. Weitering & H.H. Weitering | |
| 2007 | Peter Maksymovych | University of Pittsburgh | J. T. Yates, Jr. | |
| 2008 | Brett Goldsmith | Univ. of California, Irvine | P.G. Collins | |
| 2009 | Alpha T. N'Diaye | Univ. of Cologne | T. Michely | |
| 2010 | Heather L. Tierney | Tufts University | E. Charles H. Sykes | |
| 2011 | Tanza Lewis | Univ. of California, Irvine | J. Hemminger & B. Winter | |
| 2012 | Daniel Schwarz | University of Twente | B. Poelsema | |
| 2013 | Benjamin A. Gray | University of Arkansas | J. Chakhalian | |
| 2014 | Donna A. Kunkel | University of Nebraska - Lincoln | A. Enders | |
| 2015 | Christoph Große & Amanda Larson | Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research & University of New Hampshire | K. Kern & K. Pohl | |
| 2016 | Charlotte Herbig | University of Cologne | T. Michely | |
| 2017 | Erik S. Skibinski | Cornell University | Melissa A. Hines | |
| 2018 | Felix Lüpke | FZ Jülich | B. Voigtländer | |
| 2019 | Xiaolong Liu | Northwestern University | M.C. Hersam | |
| 2020 | Mounika Vutukuru | Boston University | Anna Swan | |
| 2021 | Jeremy F. Schultz | University of Illinois Chicago | Nan Jiang | |
| 2022 | Anuva Aishwarya | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | Vidya Madhavan | |
| 2023 | Sayantan Mahapatra | University of Illinois Chicago | Nan Jiang |