The ICTP Prize, in honour of Alfred Kastler in the fields of Solid State Physics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, was awarded to Li Jia Ming, Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, for his outstanding contributions in the field of atomic and molecular physics. He is an expert in the multichannel quantum defect theory (MQTD) and has made significant contributions towards the development of this theory. His main achievements include:
the establishment of the relativistic version of MQTD;
the application of MQTD to photoionization, photodetachment and other processes with a large number of good results;
the establishment of the multiple scattering method for calculating the MQTD physical parameters, namely the energy levels of molecular Rydberg states;
the proposal of a method to measure the compressed core density of high-power laser imploded spherical targets;
the investigation of the atomic shell effect on the equation of state at high temperature and high pressure and the application of quantum electrodynamics to high energy atomic processes.
