The Otto Wichterle Prize 2023 was awarded to Pamir Nag

Congratulations to Dr. Pamir Nag for winning the prestigious Otto Wichterle Prize. He received the award from the hands of President Eva Zažímalová on 21st June 2023 at Villa Lanna. Czech Academy of Sciences awards the Otto Wichterle Prize to selected, exceptionally high quality and promising scientists of the Czech Academy of Sciences who contribute outstanding results to the development of scientific knowledge, are holders of scientific ranks or titles, and will be no older than 35 years of age in the calendar year of submission. 

Pamir Nag (born 1989) joined the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry in 2018 after finishing his PhD in Kolkata as a postdoctoral fellow and started studying low-energy electron induced processes with isolated molecules in the gas phase. At the Heyrovsky Institute, he designed and constructed a unique instrument for investigating electron-induced chemistry (velocity map imaging spectrometer for ions produced in electron-molecule collisions).

In the year 2019 Dr. Nag received Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship with co-funding from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. This initiated a completely new line of research in the field of electron collisions with liquid interfaces. Currently he is studying electron induced processes both in gas and liquid phases. 

In additional to the primary research activities at J. Heyrovsky Institute with focus on electron collisions, Dr. Nag also regularly visits different research facilities for collaborative work, like Synchotron SOLEIL in France, GANIL in France, University of Aarhus, Denmark, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, USA etc. and probes photon or ion beam induced processes, which he compares with the electron-induced processes measured in Prague.

Pamir Nag likes to focus on the upcoming scientific generation, so he is supervising two theses of students from University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. Dr. Nag received the IOP Trusted Reviewer in the year 2021 and was selected as the Reviewer of the year 2022 of the Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics.

The premium has been awarded since 2002

The Young Scientist Prize bears the name of Professor Otto Wichterle in memory of the outstanding Czech chemist of world renown who became President of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences after November 1989.

It has been awarded since 2002 and is associated with a financial reward of CZK 330,000 spread over 3 years. So far, 500 laureates have received it.