| Year |
|
Winner |
Winner Work |
| 2012 |
|
Roy Taylor |
For his outstanding contributions to tunable ultrafast lasers and nonlinear fibre optics, including fibre Raman, soliton and supercontinuum laser sources, which translated fundamental discoveries to practical technology. |
| 2010 |
|
Gilbert Lonzarich |
For his outstanding work into novel types of quantum matter using innovative instrumentation and techniques. |
| 2008 |
|
Edward Hinds |
For his extensive and highly innovative work in ultra-cold matter. |
| 2006 |
|
Jean-Pierre Hansen |
For his pioneering work on molten salts and dense plasmas that has led the way to a quantitative understanding of the structure and dynamics of strongly correlated ionic liquids. |
| 2004 |
|
Richard Dixon |
In recognition of his many contributions to molecular spectroscopy and to the dynamics of molecular photo dissociation. |
| 2002 |
|
David King |
For his outstanding contributions to our fundamental understanding of the structure and dynamics of reaction processes on solid surfaces. |
| 2000 |
|
Wilson Sibbett |
In recognition of his research on ultra-short pulse laser science and technology. |
| 1998 |
|
Richard Friend |
In recognition of his leading research in the development of polymer-based electronics and optoelectronics leading to a very rapid growth of development activities aimed at plastic electronic displays, with advantages of very low cost, flexibility, and the option of curved or flat surfaces. |
| 1996 |
|
Grenville Turner |
In recognition of his work on the 40Ar/39Ar method of dating developing this technique to a sophisticated level and one which is widely used for dating extraterrestrial and terrestrial rocks. |
| 1994 |
|
Andrew Keller |
In recognition of his contributions to polymer science, in particular his elucidation of the basis of polymeric crystallization, a fundamental ingredient in many materials, to methods of making strong fibres and to the understanding of polymer solutions which underlie this technology. |
| 1992 |
|
Harold Neville Vazeille Temperley |
In recognition of his wide-ranging and imaginative contributions to applied mathematics and statistical physics, especially in the physical properties of liquids and the development of the Temperley-Lieb algebra. |
| 1990 |
|
Walter Eric Spear |
For discovering and applying techniques for depositing and characterising thin films of high quality amorphous silicon and for demonstrating that these can be doped to give useful electronic devices, such as cost-effective solar cells and large arrays of thin film transistors, now used in commercial, flat-panel, LCD colour TV screens. |
| 1988 |
|
Felix Weinberg |
In recognition of his pioneering work on optical diagnostics and electrical aspects of combustion and his fundamental studies of flame problems associated with jet engines and furnaces. |
| 1986 |
|
Denis Rooke |
In recognition of his contributions to scientific developments in the gas industry. |
| 1984 |
|
Harold Hopkins |
In recognition of his many contributions to the theory and design of optical instruments, especially of a wide variety of important new medical instruments which have made a major contribution to clinical diagnosis and surgery. |
| 1982 |
|
Charles Gorrie Wynne |
In recognition of his unique contribution to the design of optical instruments ranging from large telescopes to bubble-chamber optics. |
| 1980 |
|
Joe Vinen |
In recognition of his discovery of the quantum of circulation in superfluid helium and his development of new techniques for precise measurements within liquid helium. |
| 1978 |
|
George Porter |
In recognition of his distinguished studies of very fast chemical reactions by flash photolysis. |
| 1976 |
|
Ilya Prigogine |
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to the theory of irreversible thermodynamics. |
| 1974 |
|
Alan Cottrell |
In recognition of his contributions to physical metallurgy and particularly extending knowledge of the role of dislocation in the fracture of metals. |
| 1972 |
|
Basil John Mason |
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to meteorology, particularly the physics of clouds. |
| 1970 |
|
Christopher Hinton, Baron Hinton of Bankside |
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to engineering and of his leadership of engineering design teams in the chemical and atomic energy industries and in electricity generation. |
| 1968 |
|
Dennis Gabor |
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to optics, especially by establishing the principles of holography. |
| 1966 |
|
William Penney, Baron Penney |
In recognition of his distingsuihed and paramount personal contribution to the establishment of economic nuclear energy in Great Britain. |
| 1964 |
|
Hendrik C. van de Hulst |
In recognition of his distinguished work on the scattering processes in the interplanetary medium and his prediction of the 21 cm spectral line from interstellar neutral hydrogen. |
| 1962 |
|
Dudley Maurice Newitt |
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to chemical engineering. |
| 1960 |
|
Alfred Gordon Gaydon |
In recognition of his distinguished work in the field of molecular spectroscopy and particularly its application to the study of flame phenomena. |
| 1958 |
|
Thomas Ralph Merton |
In recognition of his distinguished researches in spectroscopy and optics. |
| 1956 |
|
Frank Philip Bowden |
In recognition of his distinguished work on the nature of friction. |
| 1954 |
|
Cecil Reginald Burch |
For his distinguished contributions to the technique for the production of high vacua and to the development of the reflecting microscope. |
| 1952 |
|
Frits Zernike |
In recognition of his outstanding work in the development of phase contrast microscopy. |
| 1950 |
|
Frank Whittle |
For his pioneering contributions to the jet propulsion of aircraft. |
| 1948 |
|
Francis Simon |
For his outstanding contributions to the attainment of low temperatures and to the study of the properties of substances at temperatures near the absolute zero. |
| 1946 |
|
Alfred Egerton |
In recognition of his leading part in the application of modern physical chemistry to many technological problems of pressing importance. |
| 1944 |
|
Harry Ricardo |
In recognition of his important contributions to research on the internal combustion engine, which have greatly influenced the development of the various types. |
| 1942 |
|
G. M. B. Dobson |
In recognition of his outstanding work on the physics of the upper air and its application to meteorology. |
| 1940 |
|
Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn |
For his pioneer work in high precision X-ray spectroscopy and its applications. |
| 1938 |
|
Robert W. Wood |
In recognition of his distinguished work and discoveries in many branches of physical optics. |
| 1936 |
|
Ernest John Coker |
For his researches on the use of polarized light for investigating directly the stresses in transparent models of engineering structures. |
| 1934 |
|
Wander Johannes de Haas |
For his researches on the properties of bodies at low temperatures, and in particular, for his recent work on cooling by the use of adiabatic demagnetisation. |
| 1932 |
|
Fritz Haber |
For the outstanding importance of his work in physical chemistry, especially in the application of thermodynamics to chemical reactions. |
| 1930 |
|
Peter Debye |
For his work relating to specific heats and X-ray spectroscopy. |
| 1928 |
|
Friedrich Paschen |
For his contributions to the knowledge of spectra. |
| 1926 |
|
Arthur Schuster |
For his services to physical science, especially in the subjects of optics and terrestrial magnetism. |
| 1924 |
|
C. V. Boys |
For his invention of the gas calorimeter. |
| 1922 |
|
Pieter Zeeman |
For his researches in optics. |
| 1920 |
|
Robert John Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh |
On the ground of his researches into the properties of gases at high vacua. |
| 1918 |
|
Charles Fabry |
On the ground of their contributions to optics. |
|
Alfred Perot |
On the ground of their contributions to optics. |
| 1916 |
|
William Henry Bragg |
On the ground of his researches in X-ray radiation. |
| 1914 |
|
John William Strutt |
On the ground of his investigations in thermo-dynamics and on radiation. |
| 1912 |
|
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes |
On the ground of his researches at low temperatures. |
| 1910 |
|
Heinrich Rubens |
On the ground of his researches on radiation, especially of long wave length. |
| 1908 |
|
Hendrik Lorentz |
On the ground of his investigations in optical and electrical science. |
| 1906 |
|
Hugh Longbourne Callendar |
For his experimental work on heat. |
| 1905 |
|
Ernest Rutherford |
For his researches on radio-activity, particularly for his discovery of the existence and properties of the gaseous emanations from radio-active bodies |
| 1904 |
|
Ernest Rutherford |
For his researches on radio-activity, particularly for his discovery of the existence and properties of the gaseous emanations from radio-active bodies. |
| 1902 |
|
Charles Algernon Parsons |
For his success in the application of the steam turbine to industrial purposes, and for its recent extension to navigation. |
| 1900 |
|
Antoine Henri Becquerel |
For his discoveries in radiation proceding [sic] from uranium. |
| 1898 |
|
Oliver Joseph Lodge |
For his researches in radiation and in the relations between matter and ether. |
| 1896 |
|
Philipp Lenard |
For their investigations of the phenomena produced outside a highly exhausted tube through which an electrical discharge is taking place. |
|
Wilhelm Röntgen |
For their investigations of the phenomena produced outside a highly exhausted tube through which an electrical discharge is taking place. |
| 1894 |
|
James Dewar |
For his researches on the properties of matter at extremely low temperatures. |
| 1892 |
|
Nils Christoffer Dunér |
For his spectroscopic researches on stars. |
| 1890 |
|
Heinrich Hertz |
For his work in electromagnetic radiation. |
| 1888 |
|
Pietro Tacchini |
For important and long-continued investigations, which have largely advanced our knowledge of the physics of the Sun. |
| 1886 |
|
Samuel Pierpont Langley |
For his researches on the spectrum by means of the Bolometer. |
| 1884 |
|
Tobias Robertus Thalen |
For his spectroscopic researches. |
| 1882 |
|
William de Wiveleslie Abney |
For his photographic researches and his discovery of the method of photographing the less refrangible part of the spectrum, especially the infra-red region; also for his researches on the absorption of various compound bodies in this part of the spectrum. |
| 1880 |
|
William Huggins |
For his important researches in astronomical spectroscopy, and especially for his determination of the radical component of the proper motions of stars. |
| 1878 |
|
Marie Alfred Cornu |
For his various optical researches, and especially for his recent redetermination of the velocity of the propagation of light. |
| 1876 |
|
Pierre Janssen |
For his numerous & important researches in the radiation & absorption of light, carried on chiefly by means of the spectroscope. |
| 1875 |
|
John William Draper |
For his Researches on Radiant Energy. |
| 1874 |
|
Norman Lockyer |
For his spectroscopic researches on the Sun and on the chemical elements. |
| 1872 |
|
Anders Jonas Ångström |
For his numerous contributions to the science of chemistry, and more especially for his researches on the products of the decomposition of cyanogens by ammonia; on the derivatives of uric acid; on the benzoyl series; on boron, silicon, & their compounds; and on meteoric stones. |
| 1870 |
|
Alfred Des Cloizeaux |
For his researches in mineralogical optics. |
| 1868 |
|
Balfour Stewart |
For his researches on the qualitative as well as quantitative relation between the emissive and absorptive powers of bodies for heat and light, published originally in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, and now made more generally accessible by the publication in 1866 of his treatise on heat. |
| 1866 |
|
Hippolyte Fizeau |
For his optical researches, & especially for his investigations into the effect of heat on the refractive power of transparent bodies. |
| 1864 |
|
John Tyndall |
For his researches on the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and vapours. |
| 1862 |
|
Gustav Kirchhoff |
For his researches on the fixed lines of the solar spectrum, and on the inversion of the bright lines in the spectra of artificial light. |
| 1860 |
|
James Clerk Maxwell |
For his researches on the composition of colours, and other optical papers. |
| 1858 |
|
Jules Jamin |
For his various experimental researches on light. |
| 1856 |
|
Louis Pasteur |
For his discovery of the nature of racemic acid and its relations to polarized light, and for the researches to which he was led by that discovery. |
| 1854 |
|
Neil Arnott |
For the successful construction of the smokeless fire grate lately introduced by him, and for other valuable improvements in the application of heat to the warming and ventilation of apartments. |
| 1852 |
|
Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet |
For his discovery of the change in the refrangibility of light. |
| 1850 |
|
François Arago |
For his experimental investigations on polarized light, the concluding memoirs on which were communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris during the last two years. |
