Finnish Physical Society Master Thesis Prize 2021 awarded to Kaapo Seppänen

The Finnish Physical Society (FPS) Master Thesis Prize 2021 was awarded to Kaapo Seppänen from the University of Helsinki in the opening ceremony of Physics Days 2022 on 2nd March 2022. The prize is given annually for an excellent Master thesis in the field of physical sciences.  The purpose of this prize is to support early-career researchers and acknowledge them for their exceptional work. The prize is 1000 EUR and one year of free membership of the Finnish Physical Society.

The competition had a very high level with many excellent theses submitted but Kaapo Seppänen’s thesis clearly stood out from the other finalists. Seppänen’s thesis “HTL Self-energies in Hot and Dense QCD” includes very challenging theoretical calculations and at the same time it is very well and pedagogically written. The press release on the FPS MSc Prize winner (in Finnish) by the University of Helsinki can be read here.

The FPS MSc Thesis Prize competition was a two-step process. Four finalists were selected and they were asked to provide either a blog post or a video on their MSc thesis. The evaluation committee, which consisted of the FPS Board members, gives special honorary mentions to the other finalists: Perttu Hilla (University of Oulu): Molecular Dynamics of Xe in Cryptophane-A, Katja Tolkkinen (University of Oulu): NMR cryoporometry of porous materials, and articular cartilage models, and Jonas Suni (University of Helsinki): Foreshock Compressive Structures as the Cause of Magnetosheath Jets.

All the blog posts and videos can be accessed via the links below.