Cambridge academic scoops new international prize

Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University, has been presented with the first Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize for Science and Industry by French chemical company Rhodia.

The prize recognises Sir Richard’s research on conjugated polymers, chains of molecules joined together with alternating single and multiple bonds of shared electrons, as well as his efforts to realise their commercial potential.

In 1988 he and Jeremy Burroughes established that such polymers have semiconducting properties. Two years later, Friend, Burroughes and Donal Bradley observed electroluminescence, the emission of light in response to electric current, in conjugated polymer LEDs. These fundamental discoveries started the field of semiconducting polymer electronics.

Sir Richard’s group at Cambridge have followed this up with numerous achievements, including the development of directly-printed polymer transistor circuits and efficient diodes for converting light into electricity made of polymer blends.

Such materials have since moved into the industrial world, with conjugated polymer devices taking an increasing share in the semiconductor market. These developments set to revolutionise the design of TV screens and monitors, making possible, for example, flexible screens.

Sir Richard has been at the forefront of this transfer, co-founding Cambridge Display Technology, which led to the widespread adoption of polymer LED technology and Plastic Logic, which has commercialized polymer transistors.

Over the course of his career he has published more than 600 papers and has more than 30 patents to his name and in 2003 was knighted for services to physics.

His work has been recognized with 24 prizes and awards since 1988, including the Royal Society’s Rumford Medal and the Gold Medal of the European Materials Research Society.

The Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize for Science & Industry has been established by Rhodia as an international prize for work of a scientific or technological nature in physics or chemistry which has played a major role in bringing academic research closer to industry.

It will be awarded every two years to active scientists who are members of academic institutions, universities or private research facilities, and comes with €200,000 to be divided between the recipient and a grant to further their research.