An Honorary Fellowship is the highest accolade presented by the Institute of Physics to reflect an individual’s exceptional services to physics. Our community of Honorary Fellows have contributed to the advancement of physics through a range of means and serve as ambassadors for physics, physicists and the IOP.
We welcome self-nominations and nominations for peers you think meet any of the following criteria:
- have made distinguished contributions to physics, physicists or the IOP
- are recognised as eminent figures within the community
- hold influential roles to effect change to support the mission of the IOP
Honorary Fellows that are successful in their nomination should fall into one or more of the following characteristic areas:
- Business (leaders in business and industry that have a strong physics base)
- Education (leaders in science (particularly physics) education and public engagement e.g. teachers, lecturers or policymakers)
- International influence (individuals who influence the progress of physics as a discipline internationally e.g. as supporters of internationally significant physics-based programmes)
- Research (individuals renowned for sustained research achievement of international significance)
- Policy (contributors to the welfare of physics through government/political service)
- Technical (technicians who have made outstanding contributions to physics in secondary schools, further education and higher education, national research facilities, business and/or teams)
We encourage nominations that reflect the diversity of physics and are representative of our community as a whole.
Learn more about Honorary Fellows and their work
- Nominees, nominators and referees do not need to be members of the IOP.
- Nominees, nominators and referees cannot be current members of Council, IOP employees, people under contract to the IOP, the Awards Committee, or members of any other IOP Awards judging panel.
- Honorary Fellowships are open for both nomination and self-nomination. All nominations will be judged in the same way regardless of the method of nomination.
- If you are nominating someone else, you should inform the nominee as you will need to provide their contact details and they will be contacted following submission to complete an optional EDI monitoring form.
Nominators must submit:
- Details of the nominee
- Short citation (up to 30 words)
- Long citation (up to 400 words)
- A short biographical statement (up to 1,000 words)
- Supporting evidence (up to 400 words)