2022 IOP Award winners

Professor Margaret Murnane receives the medal and prize for pioneering and sustained contributions to the development of ultrafast lasers and coherent X-ray sources and the use of such sources to understand the quantum nature of materials.

• Professor Michael William Finnis receives the Paul Dirac Medal and Prize for for opening entire areas of materials physics to rigorous theory and atomic-scale computation, including atomic interactions, irradiation damage, metal–ceramic interfaces, grain boundary embrittlement and ab initio thermodynamics of open systems.
• Professor Nikolay I Zheludev receives the Michael Faraday Medal and Prize for international leadership, discoveries and in-depth studies of new phenomena and functionalities in photonic nanostructures and nanostructured matter.
• Dr Peter Thompson receives the Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize for outstanding leadership of the National Physical Laboratory and the sustained impact of metrology on UK prosperity and quality of life.
• Dr Andrew James Shields receives the Katharine Burr Blodgett Medal and Prize for pioneering industrial R&D over two decades on quantum communication devices and systems, leading to their commercial exploitation in the UK.
• Dr Eilish McLoughlin receives the Lawrence Bragg Medal and Prize for outstanding leadership in physics teacher education and significant impact on the learning and teaching of physics in Ireland.
• Dr Sharon Ann Holgate receives the William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize for work in communicating science to a wide variety of audiences and for positive representations of scientists from non-traditional backgrounds.

• Professor Thomas F Krauss receives the Thomas Young Medal and Prize for pioneering contributions to semiconductor photonic nanostructures.
• Professor Kieran Thomas Flanagan receives the Ernest Rutherford Medal and Prize for pioneering contributions to laser spectroscopy of exotic nuclei, particularly the use of resonance ionisation and its application to single-atom sensitivity in mass spectrometry and trace-metal analysis for environmental testing.
• Professor Jonathan N Coleman receives the David Tabor Medal and Prize for groundbreaking research into developing the liquid phase exfoliation process, a scalable method for converting layered materials into two-dimensional nanosheets in large quantities.
• Professor Erminia Calabrese receives the Fred Hoyle Medal and Prize for distinguished work on observational cosmology using the Cosmic Microwave Background to study the origins, content and evolution of the universe, and to probe new regimes of physics.
• Professor Michael Tarbutt receives the Joseph Thomson Medal and Prize for pioneering experimental and theoretical work on the production of ultracold molecules by laser cooling, and the applications of those molecules to quantum science and tests of fundamental physics.
• Professor Benjamin Doyon receives the John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh Medal and Prize for pioneering contributions to a new hydrodynamic theory for the large-scale behaviours of integrable systems, which had a major influence in condensed matter, cold atomic and statistical physics research.
• Dr Ross K Galloway receives the Marie Curie-Sklodowska Medal and Prize for work in developing, using and communicating research-based approaches to active student learning in physics and other disciplines.
• Professor Gail Reinette ter Haar receives the Peter Mansfield Medal and Prize for distinguished contributions to the field of therapeutic ultrasound, and for the development of methods for the the treatment of cancer in the clinic.
• Professor Philip P Allport receives the James Chadwick Medal and Prize for broad contributions to particle physics instrumentation, most notably in the establishment of radiation-hard silicon sensor technologies and their deployment in large experiments.
• Professor Gianluca Gregori receives the Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize for pioneering experiments that have established laboratory astrophysics as a tool to study turbulent magnetised plasmas, particularly dynamo amplification, particle acceleration and heat conduction.
• Professor Roger Barlow receives the Lise Meitner Medal and Prize for distinguished contributions to physics outreach/education, most notably for initiating the Particle Physics Masterclasses, in which hundreds of thousands of school students have participated worldwide over 25 years.
• Professor Martin Howard receives the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize for fundamental application of concepts from statistical physics to molecular biology, unlocking mechanisms in diverse areas, including cell memory systems, spatiotemporal protein patterning and cell size control.
• Professor Colin John Lambert receives the Nevill Mott Medal and Prize for visionary theories of quantum-interference-enhanced, molecular-scale electron and phonon transport, which underpin recent designs for molecular-scale memories, sensors, switches and ultra-thin-film thermoelectric materials.
• Professor Daniel Frenkel receives the Sam Edwards Medal and Prize for seminal contributions to the understanding of the kinetics, self-assembly and phase behaviour of soft matter systems, and for developing highly innovative and influential simulation methods.
• Professor Michael Holynski receives the James Joule Medal and Prize for distinguished contributions to the development of quantum sensors, overcoming major technological challenges in underground mapping and demonstrating the detection of application-relevant targets.

• Dr William Dunn receives the Henry Moseley Medal and Prize for paradigm-shifting work on the outer planets, in particular the discoveries of X-ray emission on Uranus and the independent behaviour of X-ray emissions in both hemispheres of Jupiter, and for leadership of the ORBYTS research-with-schools programme.
• Dr Richard Brock receives the Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize for exceptional commitment to engaging students and teachers with the human side of physics, exemplified by inspiring and quirky Stories from Physics, published by the IOP.
• Dr Elena Boto, Dr Niall Holmes and Dr Ryan M Hill receive the Clifford Paterson Medal and Prize for the design, fabrication, demonstration and commercialisation of a new wearable brain imaging technology, based on optically pumped magnetometers, that is capable of characterising human brain function with unprecedented accuracy.
• Dr Katy Clough receives the James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize for pioneering the use of advanced computational methods to investigate fundamental physics, achieving groundbreaking research in inflationary cosmology and dark matter, and demonstrating outstanding leadership in computational physics.
• Amy Smith receives the Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize for exceptional contributions to physics education and efforts to reducing barriers to progression and increasing sense of belonging amongst underrepresented groups.

Lynne Long for tireless dedication and commitment over two decades to the West Midlands branch, fostering innumerable outreach and education/teacher activities, inspiring many to exploit and explore their relationship to physics.

• Martin Cunniffe wins for passion for the subject of physics, and outstanding contribution to advancing the teaching and learning of physics in the school and in the wider science teaching community.
• Dr Daniel Jones wins for exceptional commitment to students and to physics, for leadership, and for remarkable contributions to widening access to physics in school and the wider community.
• Vanessa McClafferty wins as a superb practitioner, demonstrated by girls making up over 50% of the school’s recent A-level cohort, and for exemplary physics communication, using social media, newsletters and linking with other disciplines.
• Nicola Marie Percy wins for exciting and progressive teaching, a significant ability to engage students and encourage their love of physics, and extensive work supporting colleagues within school, in other schools and beyond.
• Thomas W William-Powlett wins for infectious enthusiasm for physics, resourceful and innovative teaching and for work supporting colleagues within the school and through the Physics Teaching Podcast.
• Thomas Williams wins for excellence and entrepreneurial flair in teaching in his home school and other local schools, an ability to build positive relationships with students and for outstanding work with groups underrepresented in physics.
• Kayleigh Williamson wins for inspirational and creative teaching, an ability to make physics accessible to all pupils within the school, and for supporting colleagues in the school and across the region.

In 2022, Honorary Fellowships have been conferred upon:

• Professor Andrea Mia Ghez for sustained work observing stars close to the centre of our galaxy, determining the existence and mass of the central black hole, and testing elements of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
• Professor Ora Entin-Wohlman for leadership in condensed matter theory, and seminal contributions in diverse subfields including superconductivity, electron and phonon localization, magnetism, nanoscience, and spintronics.

• Keith Clark for outstanding provision of technical support for experimental particle physics at the University of Bristol and beyond.

• Mark Anderson for building and developing systems that contribute to advancement of our scientific understanding and knowledge of the universe during over two and half decades at the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

• Dave McCue for excellent support of over 250 scientific experiments at the UK’s synchrotron facility Diamond Light Source, contributions to cutting-edge developments and dedication to training the next generation of synchrotron technicians.

• Dr Kenneth Hargreaves for providing total support, not only setting up and performing complicated experiments, but also sending balloons into space, taking students to Houston and setting up a school weather station.

• Dr Delphine Hawthorne for outstanding commitment to a physics department after the sudden loss of a senior technician.

• Faye Taylor for contributing significantly to a collaborative safety interlock system for a prototype proton cancer therapy machine since joining the Science and Technology Facilities Council in 2017 as an electrical apprentice.

• Cerca Magnetics receives a Business Innovation Award for bringing to market the world’s first wearable magnetoencephalography scanner. The device measures human brain function in health and disease, providing unprecedented accuracy and unparalleled practicality.
• Innovative Physics receives a Business Innovation Award for the development of neutron detector technology designed and deployed for decommissioning inside the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Primary Containment Vessels.
• Zilico receives a Business Innovation Award for using bioelectrical technology for the development of more accurate medical device diagnostics, which provide results in real time leading to better patient outcomes.

• Ceryx Medical receives a Business Start-Up Award for developing a unique bioelectronic technology that could change the way diseases such as heart failure are treated by reinstating natural communication between the heart and lungs.
• Digistain receives a Business Start-Up Award for solving treatment delays in breast cancer by using a biomedical implementation of infrared vibrational spectroscopy.
• Porotech receives a Business Start-Up Award for the development of porous semiconductors enabling the world’s first commercial native indium-gallium-nitride red light-emitting diode (LED) epiwafer – simplifying full-colour micro-LED display manufacture and advancing this next-generation technology towards widespread adoption.
• Universal Quantum receives a Business Start-Up Award for developing the world's first million-qubit quantum computer. Universal Quantum's electronic modules are based on silicon technology, connected using ultrafast electric field links to form an architecture that truly scales.