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Technician Award

The IOP Technician Award enables the community to recognise and celebrate the skills and experience of technicians and their contribution to physics. 

Read about our 2024 winners

 


The IOP Technician Award aims to raise the visibility and professional status of technicians by recognising, rewarding and highlighting excellence in their vital work in business, research and education.

We want our awards to work for the physics community. We want it to be as easy as possible for you to nominate colleagues and yourselves for the incredible technical excellence taking place in all parts of our physics community.

As a result of the 2023 IOP Awards review we have made some changes to simplify and streamline the process from 2024 onwards. So there are two categories within the Technician Award: the School and Further Education Technician Award, and the Business, Higher Education and National Research Facility Technician Award. More information about each is on this page.

Please also note that we welcome nominations from non-members as well as IOP members.

We welcome and encourage nominations from people from underrepresented backgrounds and those who may not have previously applied or nominated others for an award. 

School and Further Education Technician Award

The winner receives a prize of £1,000, a trophy, a certificate of achievement and an invitation to a celebratory event.

The winner of the School and Further Education Technician Award will also receive an additional £1,000 prize for their school or college department.

Eligibility

Individuals will be employed as technicians or technical staff working in schools and colleges across the UK and Ireland.

Eligibility criteria:

  • the nominee(s) must be an individual employed by a school or college in the UK or Ireland either part or full time, on a fixed term or permanent basis for at least one year;
  • nominees, nominators and referees do not need to be members of the IOP;
  • nominees, nominators and referees cannot be members of the IOP Council or employees of the IOP;
  • nominators may be working in the same organisation as the nominee(s);
  • nominators cannot act as referees, but referees may be working in the same organisation as the nominee;
  • an individual cannot be rewarded twice for substantially the same body of work; and
  • an individual nominated or self-nominated must have a sustainable track record of impact.

The IOP reserves the right to rescind IOP Awards should there be evidence of a significant breach of the Code of Conduct.

Nomination process

The nominations for the 2024 IOP School and Further Education Technician Award are now closed.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions about the awards or your submission.

Nominators must submit:

  • details of the nominee, including details of the working relationship between nominator and nominee(s);
  • a supporting statement of impact of no more than 500 words that highlights:
    • how the individual entered into the technical profession
    • relevant information about the person(s) and their role
    • examples of their achievements; their contributions and resultant impact in their current role, rather than past achievements in any previous roles
    • evidence of professionalism, learning and development
    • examples of where the nominee(s) inspired others; and
  • contact details for two referees, at least one of whom should be a senior colleague in the school or college (their supporting statement will be required at a later stage).

If you have any questions about this award or the category that would be most suited to you, please email [email protected].

Business, Higher Education and National Research Facility Technician Award

The winner receives a prize of £1,000, a trophy, a certificate of achievement and an invitation to a celebratory event.

Eligibility

Individuals will be employed as technicians or technical staff working in a diverse range of organisations across the UK and Ireland such as universities, research institutions, or industry.

They may, as a non-exhaustive example, build and maintain infrastructure and laboratory equipment, software to support research and innovation, or install manufacturing systems or process control instrumentation.

Eligibility criteria:

  • the nominee(s) must be an individual employed as a technician or member of technical staff by an organisation in the UK or Ireland either part or full time, on a fixed term, or permanent basis for at least one year;
  • nominees, nominators and referees do not need to be members of the IOP;
  • nominees, nominators and referees cannot be members of the IOP Council or employees of the IOP;
  • nominators may be working in the same organisation as the nominee(s);
  • nominators cannot act as referees, but referees may be working in the same organisation as the nominee; an individual cannot be rewarded twice for substantially the same body of work; and
  • an individual nominated or self-nominated must have a sustainable track record of impact.

The IOP reserves the right to rescind IOP Awards should there be evidence of a significant breach of the Code of Conduct.

Nomination process

The nominations for the 2024 IOP Business, Higher Education and National Research Facility Technician Award are now closed.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions about the awards or your submission.

Nominators must submit:

  • details of the nominee, including details of the working relationship between nominator and nominee(s);
  • a supporting statement of impact of no more than 500 words that highlights:
    • how the individual entered into the technical profession
    • relevant information about the person(s) and their role
    • examples of their achievements; their contributions and resultant impact in their current role, rather than past achievements in any previous roles
    • evidence of professionalism, learning and development
    • examples of where the nominee(s) inspired others; and
  • contact details for two referees, at least one of whom should be the head of department or function, or the equivalent level of seniority within an organisation (their supporting statement will be required at a later stage).

If you have any questions about this award or the category that would be most suited to you, please email [email protected].

Previous winners

Find out more about our previous winners of the Technician Awards: