Girl Guide pioneer, semiconductor innovators and cancer trailblazer among annual IOP Awards winners

The science communicator who came up with the ‘I am a physicist’ badge for the Girl Guide movement, Rebecca Dewey, has been honoured today as a winner of the Institute of Physics (IOP) Phillips Award.

Rebecca was instrumental in setting up the badge that will soon celebrate a milestone of having been awarded to 50,000 Girl Guides, equating to 200,000 hours of physics learning by girls and their Guide leaders.

Also named today as the winners of the IOP’s two most prestigious awards, the Isaac Newton Medal and Lecture and the Gold Michael Faraday Medal and Prize, are two leaders in the world of semiconductors.

Professor Sir Richard Friend of the University of Cambridge has won the Newton medal with Professor Laura Herz from the University of Oxford winning the Faraday prize.

Sir Richard is responsible for pioneering and enduring work on the fundamental electronic properties of molecular semiconductors and in their engineering development.

And Professor Herz has been honoured for her work making landmark advances in the photophysics of next-generation semiconductors which power new solar energy technology. Using innovative spectroscopic experiments, her work has been critical to the emergence of new light-harvesting materials for solar energy conversion.

They are joined in today’s awards by physicists whose research led to new techniques for cancer diagnosis, the development of the world’s tiniest optical cavity and innovations to improve the detection of wildfires.

Professor Nicholas Stone wins the Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize for developing spectroscopic techniques for cancer diagnosis, while Dr Rohit Chikkaraddy is recognised with the Henry Moseley Medal and Prize, for constructing the world’s tiniest optical cavity and making extreme light confinement at atomic scales possible.

Awards have also gone today to inspirational teachers, talented apprentices and innovative businesses.

One outstanding teacher honoured is Jonathan Williams, from Ysgol Maes Y Gwendraeth in Cefneithin, Carmarthenshire in Wales.

He is praised for not only sharing his passion for physics with his students but also for supporting teaching of the subject across Wales by producing Welsh-language materials and mentoring fellow teachers. His students have also participated in the LEGO League, engineering schemes, the Gold Crest Award, and environmental projects in conjunction with the National Botanic Gardens of Wales.

IOP President, Professor Sir Keith Burnett, said: “On behalf of the IOP, I want to congratulate all of this year’s award winners. They represent an incredible range of scientific activity and represent some of the most innovative and inspiring work going on in physics today.

“Today’s world faces many challenges which physics will play an absolutely fundamental part in addressing, whether it’s securing the future of our economy or the transition to sustainable energy production and net zero.

“Our award winners are in the vanguard of that work and each one has made a significant and positive impact in their profession. Whether as a researcher, teacher, industrialist, technician or apprentice, I hope they are incredibly proud of their achievements – they really should be.

“There is so much focus today on the opportunities generated by a career in physics and the potential our science has to transform our society and economy, and I hope the stories of our winners will help to inspire future generations of scientists.

“Once again, many congratulations to our winners.”