Jul 6 2010
Sir Michael Pepper at London Centre for Nanotechnology has been awarded a Gold Medal of the Institute of Physics for Business and Innovation. The citation reads: For translating advances in semiconductor physics into the commercial arena, including key roles in founding Toshiba Research Europe, Cambridge Laboratory, and TeraView Ltd.
Michael Pepper has established a wide range of scientific activities ranging from basic science (including his founding role in the field of semiconductor nanoelectronics) to industrial applications and commercialisation. In nano-electronics, he was one of the collaborators in the discovery of the integer quantum Hall effect for which Klaus von Klitzing won the Nobel Prize. Commercially, in 1991 he founded Toshiba Research Europe, Cambridge Laboratory and became its first Managing Director. The company has successfully prototyped quantum cryptography hardware, thereby responding both to a new market opportunity and demonstrating the role of advanced semiconductor devices such as quantum dot emitters and detectors.
He also co-founded TeraView Ltd. which was spun out of Toshiba Research Europe, Cambridge Laboratory. TeraView has shown that terahertz technology, utilising semiconductor emitters and detectors, has applications in a broad range of areas, from security to medicine, as well as demonstrating completely new applications in pharmaceuticals and industrial process control.