Professor Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University
of Cambridge, has been awarded the prestigious Institute of Physics (IOP)'
Business and Innovation Medal today Wednesday 1 July for outstanding contributions
to physics in an industrial or commercial context.
Professor Friend has been awarded the medal for guiding the company Cambridge
Display Technology (CDT) to a pre-eminent position in the development of light-emitting
polymers and in the development of the technology for flat-panel displays and
lighting.
The 2009 IOP awards celebrate achievements in physics such as successful business
applications along with leading research in a wide range of fields from astronomy
to optical physics, as well as excellence in engaging the general public with
physics.
Dr Robert Kirby Harris, chief executive of the IOP, said "The IOP awards
are a wonderful way of honouring the achievements of physicists across a range
of fields as well as underlining the important role physics has in adding considerable
value to the UK - both directly and also in underpinning engineering and other
sciences"
Cambridge graduate Dr David Fyfe, Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Display
Technology was also recognised with an IOP Business and Innovation Medal for
his guidance to CDT.
Other notable winners this year include US physicist Professor Alan H Guth,
who has been awarded the IOP's international award, the Isaac Newton Medal,
for his development of the inflationary model of the early universe, which has
fundamentally changed the way that scientists view the development of the cosmos
from the Big Bang onwards.
Posted July 1st, 2009
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