The award recognizes the outstanding paper “Directional flows using capillary assembly of photo-deformable colloidal particles at water-air interfaces“, published in Nature Communications 17, 1004, 2026, which reports on a fundamentally new way of displacing particles along liquid interfaces and tailoring flow patterns using polarized light, photo-deformation and capillary forces.
The award-winning research was carried out during David’s research stay at the Soft Matter Lab, University of Gothenburg, highlighting the value of international collaboration in advancing frontier research.