Institute of Physics Michael Faraday Medal and Prize

The Michael Faraday Medal and Prize is a gold medal awarded annually by the Institute of Physics in experimental physics. The award is made "for outstanding and sustained contributions to experimental physics." The medal is accompanied by a prize of £1000 and a certificate.



Historical development

 * 1914-1965 Guthrie Lecture initiated to remember Frederick Guthrie, founder of the Physical Society (which merged with the Institute of Physics in 1960).
 * 1966-2007 Guthrie Medal and Prize (in response to changed conditions from when the lecture was first established). From 1992, it became one of the Institute's Premier Awards.
 * 2008–present Michael Faraday Medal and Prize

Faraday medalists

 * 2022 Nikolay Zheludev, "For international leadership, discoveries and in-depth studies of new phenomena and functionalities in photonic nanostructures and nanostructured matter."
 * 2021 Bucker Dangor, "For outstanding contributions to experimental plasma physics, and in particular for his role in the development of the field of laser-plasma acceleration."
 * 2020 Richard Ellis, "For over 35 years of pioneering contributions in faint-object astronomy, often with instruments he funded and constructed, which have opened up the early universe to direct observations."
 * 2019 Roy Taylor, "For his extensive, internationally leading contributions to the development of spectrally diverse, ultrafast-laser sources and pioneering fundamental studies of nonlinear fibre optics that have translated to scientific and commercial application."
 * 2018 Jennifer Thomas, "For her outstanding investigations into the physics of neutrino oscillations, in particular her leadership of the MINOS/MINOS+ long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment."
 * 2017 Jeremy Baumberg, "For his investigations of many ingenious nanostructures supporting novel and precisely engineered plasmonic phenomena relevant to single molecule and atom dynamics, Raman spectroscopies and metamaterials applications."
 * 2016 Jenny Nelson," For her pioneering advances in the science of nanostructured and molecular semiconductor materials "
 * 2015 Henning Sirringhaus, "For transforming our knowledge of charge transport phenomena in organic semiconductors as well as our ability to exploit them"
 * 2014 Alexander Giles Davies and Edmund Linfield, "For their outstanding and sustained contributions to the physics and technology of the far-infrared (terahertz) frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum"
 * 2013 Edward Hinds, "For his innovative and seminal experimental investigations into ultra-cold atoms and molecules"
 * 2012 Roy Sambles, "For his pioneering research in experimental condensed matter physics"
 * 2011 Alan Andrew Watson, "For his outstanding leadership within the Pierre Auger Observatory, and the insights he has provided to the origin and nature of ultra high energy cosmic rays"
 * 2010 Athene Donald, "For her many highly original studies of the structures and behaviour of polymers both synthetic and natural"
 * 2009 Donal Bradley, "For his pioneering work in the field of 'plastic electronics'"
 * 2008 Roger Cowley, "For pioneering work in the development and application of neutron and X-ray scattering techniques to the physics of a wide range of important solid and liquid-state systems"

Guthrie medalists
• 2007 Gilbert Lonzarich, "for his experimental and theoretical contributions to condensed matter physics"

• 2006 Marshall Stoneham, "for his wide-ranging theoretical work on defects in solids"

• 2005 William Frank Vinen, "for his outstanding contributions to superfluids and superconductors"

• 2004 Henry Hall

• 2003 Michael Springford

• 2002 Penelope Jane Brown

• 2001 Laurence Eaves

• 2000 Lawrence Michael Brown

• 1999 George Bacon

• 1998 Derek Charles Robinson

• 1997 John Evan Baldwin

• 1996 Edward Roy Pike

• 1995 John Enderby

• 1994 Philip George Burke

• 1993 Tom Kibble

• 1992 Archibald Howie

• 1991 Dennis William Sciama

• 1990 Roger James Elliott

• 1989 Martin J. Rees

• 1988 Alan Lidiard

• 1987 Samuel Frederick Edwards

• 1986 Denys Haigh Wilkinson

• 1985 Michael Pepper

• 1984 Michael John Seaton

• 1983 Jeffrey Goldstone

• 1982 Frederick Charles Frank

• 1981 John Clive Ward

• 1980 Michael Ellis Fisher

• 1979 Donald Hill Perkins

• 1978 Philip Warren Anderson

• 1977 Alan Howard Cottrell

• 1976 Abdus Salam

• 1975 David Tabor

• 1974 Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer

• 1973 Hermann Bondi

• 1972 Brian David Josephson

• 1971 John Ashworth Ratcliffe

• 1970 Alfred Brian Pippard

• 1969 Cecil Frank Powell

• 1968 Rudolf Ernst Peierls

• 1967 James Chadwick

• 1966 William Cochran

Guthrie lecturers
• 1965 John Bertram Adams

• 1964 Martin Ryle

• 1963 Leslie Fleetwood Bates

• 1962 Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell

• 1961 David Shoenberg

• 1960 Fred Hoyle

• 1959 Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey

• 1958 Willis Eugene Lamb

• 1957 Harold C Urey

• 1956 Francis Simon

• 1955 Edmund Clifton Stoner

• 1954 Geoffrey Taylor

• 1953 Max Born

• 1952 W Lawrence Bragg

• 1951 Nevill Francis Mott

• 1950 George Ingle Finch

• 1949 Alexander Oliver Rankine

• 1948 George Paget Thomson

• 1947 John Desmond Bernal

• 1946 Max Jakob

• 1945 Arturo Duperier: "The Geophysical Aspect of Cosmic Rays"

• 1944 Joel H Hildebrand

• 1943 Edward T. Whittaker: "Chance, freewill and necessity, in the scientific conception of the universe"

• 1942 Edward V Appleton

• 1941 Edward Neville da Costa Andrade

• 1940 Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett: "Cosmic Rays: Recent Developments"

• 1939 (no lecture)

• 1938 Archibald Vivian Hill: "The transformations of energy and the mechanical work of muscles"

• 1937 Clifford Copland Paterson

• 1936 Frederick A. Lindemann: "Physical Ultimates"

• 1935 Arthur Holly Compton: "An attempt to analyse Cosmic Rays"

• 1934 Charles Vernon Boys: "My recent progress in Gas Calorimetry"

• 1933 Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn

• 1932 Max Planck

• 1931 Richard T Glazebrook

• 1930 Peter Debye

• 1929 Percy Williams Bridgman

• 1928 J. J. Thomson

• 1927 Sir Ernest Rutherford: "Atomic nuclei and their transformations"

• 1926 Charles Fabry

• 1925 Wilhelm Wien

• 1924 Maurice le Duc de Broglie

• 1923 James Hopwood Jeans

• 1922 Niels Bohr: "The Effect of Electric and Magnetic Fields on Spectral Lines"

• 1921 Albert Abraham Michelson: "Some Recent Applications of Interference Methods"

• 1920 Charles Edouarde Guillaume: "The Anomaly of Nickel-Steels"

• 1919 (no lecture)

• 1918 John Cunningham McLennan: "The Origin of Spectra"

• 1917 Paul Langevin

• 1916 William Bate Hardy: "Some Problems of Living Matter"

• 1915 (no lecture)

• 1914 Robert Williams Wood: "Radiation of Gas Molecules Excited by Light"