Allan MacDonald Wins $1 Million Kavli Nanoscience Prize for Twistronics, First Canadian Since 2008
Updated
Updated · The Globe and Mail · Jun 10
Allan MacDonald Wins $1 Million Kavli Nanoscience Prize for Twistronics, First Canadian Since 2008
3 articles · Updated · The Globe and Mail · Jun 10
Summary
Allan MacDonald, 74, was named a 2026 Kavli nanoscience laureate, becoming the first Canadian to win the prize since it was created in 2008.
The $1 million award is shared with Rutgers physicist Eva Andrei and MIT's Pablo Jarillo-Herrero for showing that slightly twisting stacked 2D materials can radically alter their quantum behavior.
That work helped establish “twistronics” and showed that materials such as graphene can become superconductors at certain angles, allowing electricity to flow without resistance.
MacDonald, a University of Texas at Austin theorist born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, said limited Canadian opportunities in his field in the 1980s pushed him to move to the United States.
The prize, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, underscores both MacDonald’s role in quantum materials and the broader rise of twistronics as a major research field.
Beyond twisting, what other simple geometric tricks could unlock the next generation of undiscovered quantum materials?
A mysterious energy signal was found in magic-angle graphene. Is this the missing key to unlocking room-temperature superconductivity?
Will the 'magic' of twistronics ever escape the lab, or are its manufacturing hurdles too high for its revolutionary promises?
Honoring Twistronics: 2026 Kavli Nanoscience Prize and the Quantum Materials Frontier
Overview
On June 10, 2026, the Kavli Foundation, together with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, awarded the 2026 Kavli Nanoscience Prize to Eva Y. Andrei, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, and Allan H. MacDonald. Their foundational work established the field of twistronics, which explores the remarkable properties that arise when ultrathin layers of materials are stacked and twisted at specific angles. This breakthrough has opened new directions in materials science and condensed matter physics, fundamentally changing how scientists understand material behavior at the nanoscale.