Prospectus of The Heinrich Rohrer Medal and Invitation to The Official Sponsors
May, 2023
The Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science (JVSS)
1. Purpose of the Medal
In order to celebrate the great achievements accomplished by one of the Nobel Laureates in 1986,
Late Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, and also to express our deepest gratitude for his huge contribution to theresearch community, and finally to promote further progress in research and development in thefield of nanoscience and nanotechnology, an international prize named after him has
been established in 2013 by The Surface Science Society of Japan (SSSJ) (at present merged
as the Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science (JVSS)) in collaboration with IBM
Research - Zurich, Swiss Embassy in Japan and Ms. Rohrer.
2. Outline of the Medal
The Heinrich Rohrer Medal is composed of the Grand Medal and the Rising Medal as described
below. The Medal will be awarded every three years, at The International Symposium on
Surface Science (ISSS) organized by JVSS (scheduled in 2014, 2017, 2020,2023...). The award
ceremony will be held at ISSS, and the winners are requested to deliver award lecture/talks
at ISSS. The next awarding will be at ISSS-10 in October, 2024.
The details are found on https://jvss.jp/RohrerMedal/index.html•The Grand Medal goes to researchers who have made distinguished achievements in the field ofnanoscience and nanotechnology based on surface science, hereby have made significant progress inscience and technology. The winner of the Grand Medal should be basically one person each time.
When, however, there is little to choose among the candidates on the basis of achievements, morethan one candidate can share the Medal under a common topic. The winners can becollaborators. The Medal with a special framed Certificate and the cash of JPY 1,000,000 will beawarded. If the winners of the Grand Medal are more than one, the cash will be shared equally.
•The Rising Medal goes to researchers of 37* or less years old (as of January 1st of the award year)
who have made outstanding results and are expected to continue to play active roles in the field.
The winners of the Rising Medal are up to three individuals under different topics each time.
The Medal with a special framed Certificate and the cash of JPY 300,000 will be awarded foreach winner.
*Only for the 4th Rising Medal, this limit is changed to 38 because of the irregular interval of previous ISSS-9 due to COVID-19.

3. Selection Process
The nomination of candidates may be made by anyone qualified to evaluate, highlight, andvalidate the nominee's accomplishments. Any individual may submit one nominating or supporting
letter for each Medal (Grand Medal or Rising Medal).
The letter formats are found on https://jvss.jp/RohrerMedal/index.html. The complete
package of documents should be transmitted electronically as PDF files (with proper securityprotection) to: rohrermedal@jvss.jp before October 31, 2023.
The Award Committee is composed of international members, which is organized by JVSS.

4. Why does JVSS host The Heinrich Rohrer Medal?
Dr. Rohrer visited Japan some dozen times and played important roles as a member of various
kinds of advisory/reviewing boards and steering committees of many organizations and researchgroups, and also delivered a huge number of lectures and talks in conferences, universities, andresearch institutes in Japan. Many young researchers and students were directly encouraged bypersonal conversation with him. Because of his lovely and frank personality, many of Japanesepeople love and respect him so much that the idea of a prize named after him has been arisen
immediately after his death in May 2013. Since Dr. Rohrer loved Japanese nature and culture very
much, he and Japan were bound by strong ties with respect.
Dr. Rohrer strongly promoted not only research on scanning probe microscopy which was hisachievement for the Nobel Prize, but also research in wider areas of nanoscience andnanotechnology, with words “Nano is Different” which he used frequently in his talks. Since thefield of nanoscience and nanotechnology is exactly the one that JVSS covers, JVSS is the bestsociety in the world that hosts The Heinrich Rorer Medal.
The Heinrich Rohrer Medal is, however, not for encouraging Japanese researchers only, but isaiming at promoting activities in international community for global progress of research.
Therefore, the Heinrich Rohrer Medal is operated from an international view point by collaboratingwith societies and research institutes in many countries.
5. Invitation to the official sponsors for The Heinrich Rohrer Medal
JVSS is inviting enterprises and companies, which are active in the fields relating toThe Medal, to the official sponsors providing funds for operating the Medal. The funds are for theprize money and other expenses relating with the awarding. JVSS would like to ask eachcompany to kindly contribute one or more units at ¥500,000 / unit. The official sponsors arestated clearly on the Web page and the certificates of the Medal. Please contact us below toask the information and invoice for the donation.
Contact: Secretary-General, JVSS
e-mail: office@jvss.jp, TEL:+81-3-3812-0266, FAX:+81-3-3812-2897,
5F Ishikawa bldg. 5-25-16 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 113-0033
The Japan Society of Vacuum and Surface Science (JVSS)
Prof. Ken-ichi Fukui, Member of The Committee of International Affairs in JVSS
Department of Materials Engineering, Osaka University, ken-ichi.fukui.es@osaka-u.ac.jp