Russian news sources announced that the Russian Mathematical Physicist, Ludwig Faddeev, died on Sunday February 26 "after a long illness". Faddeev is known for multiple seminal contributions to theoretical physics (e.g., Faddeev-Popov ghosts, Faddeev-Senjanovic quantization, Faddeev-Jackiw quantization). His work has been recognized by many prizes in different countries over the past 40 years, as well as memberships of several prestigious bodies, such as the Russian Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society. He was the President of the International Mathematical Union from 1986 to 1990.

In 1961, when he was only 27, he published what became known as "the Faddeev equations". As the first mathematically well-posed formulation of the quantum-mechanical three-body problem, these equations are foundational in few-body physics. They have been used in innumerable studies over the subsequent five decades that solved three-body problems in atomic, nuclear, and particle physics.

In 2016 GFB, in conjunction with the European Research Committee for Few-body Problems (ERCFBP), established the Faddeev medal, to "recognize distinguished achievement in few-body physics". Professor Faddeev was present when this was announced during the 23rd European Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, and GFB and ERCFBP were hoping that he would present the medal to its first recipient at the International Few-Body Conference in Caen in 2018.

The Faddeev medalist will be selected by an international panel of experts, which is chaired by Prof. Giuseppina Orlandini, orlandin@science.unitn.it. Nominations are open until May 31, 2017; details of the nomination requirements can be found on the European Few-Body Physics website.