The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was divided, one half awarded to David J. Thouless, the other half jointly to F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter".

Their research was on topology, which was central to this year’s discoveries, explains why electrical conductivity inside thin layers changes in integer steps. Kosterlitz and Thouless studied the electrical behaviour of surfaces or inside extremely thin layers (physicists call these two-dimensional materials). Haldane studied matter that forms threads so thin they can be considered one-dimensional.