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prizes, aWards and honours
Queen’s birthday honours 2010
professor colin Humphreys, Director
of Research in the Department of
Materials Science and Metallurgy, has
been awarded a knighthood for services
to Science. A Fellow of Selwyn, Sir Colin
founded and directs the Cambridge
Centre for Gallium Nitride, which is
developing energy-efficient lighting that
would enable the Uk to close, or not
build, eight power stations if adopted
widely.
Using similar technology, he is also
researching a new way to purify water
in the developing and developed
worlds, and to kill hospital superbugs.
He founded and directs the Rolls-Royce
University Technology Partnership in
Advanced Materials at Cambridge, which
is developing next-generation materials
for Rolls-Royce jet engines to make them
other awards
➔ Dr Gerry Kearns, University Senior
Lecturer and Fellow of Jesus, was
honoured in the Royal Geographical
Society’s annual Royal Medals and awards
ceremony. Dr kearns won the Murchison
Award “for publications in historical
geography”. He was joined by Cambridge
student lucy stapleton, co-winner of
the Alfred Steers Dissertation Prize for
the best undergraduate Geography
dissertation in 2009.
➔ professor robin irvine has been
awarded the 2010 JR vane Medal from
the British Pharmacological Society (BPS).
The medal recognises his outstanding
work in the field of molecular, cellular and
signaling pharmacology. The presentation
of the prize will be made at the BPS
annual dinner and prizegiving ceremony,
to be held in December in London.
➔ Dr andrea Ferrari, Head of the
Nanomaterials and Spectroscopy Group
in the Electrical Engineering Division
of the Department of Engineering, has
been awarded a Royal Society Wolfson
Research Merit Award by the Royal
Society, the Uk’s national academy of
science. The award is given to individuals
of proven outstanding ability to
undertake independent, original research.
➔ professor sir John meurig thomas,
is to give the Gerhard Ertl Prize Lecture
at the Fritz-Haber Institute Berlin in
December.
➔ Dr andy Harter has won a prestigious
professor Colin humphreys
professor Athene Donald
Royal Academy of Engineering Silver
Medal. Dr Harter, who is Chief Executive
Officer of Cambridge-based software
company RealvNC Ltd and visiting Fellow
of the Computer Laboratory’s Digital
Technology Group, received the award
for his outstanding contribution to British
engineering. He is perhaps most notably
responsible for virtual Networking
Computing, a software system invented
in 1995 that provides remote graphical
access to a computer screen.
➔ professor philip Gibbard, Professor
of Quaternary Palaeoenvironments in the
Department of Geography, was awarded
an honorary doctorate degree by the
University of Helsinki. This is the highest
honour the University can bestow.
➔ Dr bertie Gottgens, Reader
in Molecular Haematology in the
Department of Haematology, has been
awarded the McCulloch and Till Award
by the International Society for Stem
Cells and Hematology. The award is given
annually to the most promising younger
group leader worldwide in stem cell and
haematology research.
➔ barbara J sahakian, Professor
of Clinical Neuropsychology at the
Department of Psychiatry, has been given
the 2010 Senior Investigator Award by
the International College of Geriatric
Psychoneuropharmacology (ICGP)
for her outstanding contribution over
many years to translational cognitive
psychopharmacology and the study of
emotional and behavioural dysfunction.
Professor Sahakian is due to receive the
12 | september/october 2010 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE NEwSlETTER
more energy efficient. He has received
many national and international medals
for his research, has been President of
the Institute of Materials, Minerals and
Mining, and is a Fellow of the Royal
Academy of Engineering. He has recently
been appointed Master of the Armourers
and Brasiers’ Company in London,
in addition to his other activities. He
received a CBE from the Queen in 2003.
professor athene Donald, Deputy Head
of the Cavendish Laboratory and Director
of the Women in Science, Engineering
and Technology Initiative (WiSETI),
has been appointed Dame Commander
of the British Empire (DBE) for services
to Physics.
Dame Athene, a Fellow of Robinson,
has worked at the University’s Cavendish
award this month at the ICGP Annual
Meeting in Athens.
➔ professor clare Grey, of the
Department of Chemistry, has been
awarded the John Jeyes Award by
the Royal Society of Chemistry “in
recognition of her world leadership role
in the use of solid-state NMR methods
to study structure and function in
inorganic materials, and specifically for
the development and application of
novel NMR methods to study structure
and dynamics in lithium licals and
manufacture”.
➔ professor alastair compston, of the
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, is
the joint recipient of the 2010 Zülch Prize,
the most prestigious scientific distinction
in basic neurological research in Germany.
Professor Compston and Professor Hans
Lassmann of the University of vienna
received the award for scientific research
on the pathophysiology and therapy of
multiple sclerosis.
➔ Dr barbara lorber of the Cambridge
Centre for Brain Repair has received an
Early Career Investigator Award from
eye research charity Fight for Sight.
Dr Lorber is researching the possibilities
of transplanting specialist cells into the
eye and optic nerve to repair the damage
caused by glaucoma.
➔ Dr steve morris has received the
British Liquid Crystal Society Young
Scientist of the Year award. Dr Morris is
a researcher in the Centre of Molecular
Materials for Photonics and Electronics
at the Department.
Laboratory since 1983 and was elected to
the Royal Society in 1999.
Her current research lies at the
interface of Physics and Biology, working
on problems associated with protein
aggregation and cellular biophysics.
She has been responsible for building
up this activity within the department
and nationally, being the founding
chair of the Institute of Physics Group in
Biological Physics. This summer she won
the Faraday Medal from the institute for
outstanding contribution to experimental
physics.
In 2009 she was awarded the L’Oreal/
UNESCO Women in Science Award for
Europe in recognition of this work. She
has received numerous other prizes
during her career, including the Bakerian
Prize Lecture of the Royal Society in 2006.
Dr gerry Kearns
professor robin irvine
Dr Andrea ferrari