EPFL professor Tobias Kippenberg has been named a recipient of the 2026 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award, which includes €2.5 million in research funding to pursue fundamental questions in physics.The NOMIS Foundation supports pioneering, curiosity-driven research across disciplines through its prestigious Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award. Established in 2016, the Award “honors exceptional researchers whose bold questions and broad-ranging approaches transform our understanding of the world.”Tobias Kippenberg, Professor at EPFL, is one of the three recipients of the 2026 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award, alongside Andrew Gonzalez of McGill University and Ulrike Malmendier of the University of California, Berkeley. The Award includes €2.5 million in research funding, giving recipients the freedom to pursue ambitious, long-term scientific questions.Kippenberg is internationally recognized for pioneering work in photonics, frequency combs, and cavity optomechanics. Among his most influential contributions is the discovery that optical microresonators, tiny ring-shaped devices that trap and circulate light—can generate optical frequency combs from a single laser source. These precisely spaced frequencies have become essential tools in fields ranging from precision measurement and telecommunications to astronomy.Kippenberg’s research has also shown that light circulating inside microresonators exerts measurable forces on the structures themselves, coupling light to mechanical motion. This insight has helped establish the field of cavity optomechanics, which explores the interaction between light and mechanical systems at extremely small scales.Through the NOMIS Award, Kippenberg will pursue a new project titled The Quest for Ultralow Dissipation, which aims to understand the fundamental limits governing energy loss in physical systems. The research addresses a central question in modern physics: what ultimately determines how slowly energy can dissipate?The awardees will present their research at the NOMIS Insight Lectures in Zurich on 14 October 2026, followed by the official award ceremon