06/12/2026
Congratulations to StFX alumnus Dr. Allan MacDonald ’73 on winning the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience! The Kavli Foundation
The Kavli Prize is a prestigious international award recognizing scientists for groundbreaking discoveries in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.
We’re proud to celebrate Dr. MacDonald’s tremendous achievement and this remarkable recognition on the international stage.
FULL STORY:
"Physicist Allan MacDonald becomes first Canadian to win Kavli nanoscience prize
Ivan SemeniukScience Reporter
Published June 10, 2026
Allan MacDonald, a Canadian physicist based in the United States who is best known for helping to usher in the field of “Twistronics” has been named a winner of this year’s Kavli Prize in nanoscience.
Allan MacDonald is the first Canadian to win the Kavli prize in nanoscience since it was created in 2008.
Dr. MacDonald, 74, is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin where he has long pursued theoretical work related to the quantum behaviour of materials.
He shares the award with Eva Andrei of Rutgers University and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All three are credited for uncovering how the quantum properties of materials that are organized in two-dimensional layers, such as graphene, can change drastically when the layers are slightly rotated relative to each other.
For example, in certain materials and angles, the layers can become superconductors, allowing electricity to flow without resistance. (The word Twistronics was later coined to capture the idea that a twist in the layers can change the electronic properties of the material.)
Born and educated in Canada, Dr. MacDonald hails from Antigonish, N.S., and received his PhD at the University of Toronto in 1978. He then spent nearly a decade working at the National Research Council of Canada before moving to the United States.
He is the first Canadian to win the Kavli prize in nanoscience since it was created in 2008.
The nanoscience prize, worth US$1-million, is one of three established by Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-American tech entrepreneur and philanthropist. It is bestowed annually by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo alongside its equivalent prizes for astrophysics and neuroscience.
Dr. MacDonald, who has previously been recognized with other major awards, including the Wolf Prize in Physics, said the Kavli nanoscience prize has a special resonance because, “it specifically recognizes the area in which I work.”
In an interview from Nova Scotia, Dr. MacDonald said a lack of opportunity in his field during the 1980s forced him to look southward for an academic position, taking him first to Indiana and then Texas.
“I had to go to the States to get somebody to give me a chance,” he said.
He praised the strong quantum materials community that has emerged in Canada since then – a community he continues to engage with, including as an adviser to the long-running quantum materials program supported by the Toronto-based research organization CIFAR.
“One of Allan’s unique qualities that makes him especially effective as a scientist is his ability to connect with experimentalists,” said Joshua Folk, a quantum materials researcher at the University of British Columbia who has collaborated with Dr. MacDonald. “He exudes a real enthusiasm for discussing measurement puzzles, especially when data are not consistent with existing theories.”"
Story Credit: The Globe And Mail
Photo Credit: The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters/Supplied
