Newsmaker: Sergey Frolov

Sergey Frolov

Noteworthy: The American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded Frolov the 2012 Newcomb Cleveland Prize, which recognizes the best research paper of the year published in the association's prestigious journal Science. The award comes with $25,000 for Frolov and five collaborators, three at Delft University of Technology and two at Eindhoven University of Technology, both in the Netherlands. The paper explored the discovery of the Majorana particle, predicted by a physicist 75 years ago but never observed until Frolov and his team created it in a laboratory.

Age: 32

Residence: Shadyside

Family: Wife, Olga

Occupation: Frolov is an assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Background: He continues to research the Majorana particles he helped discover. The particles exist for nanoseconds as both a particle and their own antiparticle.

Education: Frolov earned a doctorate in physics in 2005, as well as a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics in 2000 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Quote: “(The particles) come and go all the time. … One of the challenges for the future is to make them live longer, for hours.”

­­— Mike Wereschagin