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.

 

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