28 May 2002

Double success for Cambridge in Academy Awards

Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge University and co-founder and Chief Scientist of Cambridge Display Technology Ltd, has won a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal for his outstanding personal contribution to British engineering, presented at the Academy Awards Dinner in London last night (27 May).

In a unique double triumph, the Academy also announced CDT Ltd as one of the four finalists for the UK's biggest engineering prize - the £50,000 MacRobert Award. Chief Executive Dr David Fyfe, Dr Jeremy Burroughes, Dr Karl Heeks, Dr Carl Towns and Professor Friend received CDT's MacRobert Award finalist certificate on 27 May.

Professor Friend and colleagues in Cambridge discovered in 1989 that they could make polymers that emitted intense light under an electric current - and changing the polymer compositions produced different colours of light. Realising that this breakthrough opened the way to high-quality colour displays in computers and mobile devices, they formed Cambridge Display Technology Ltd in 1992 to exploit their discovery. Ten years on CDT now employs 110 people in Cambridge and Huntingdon and has licensed its technology to several major electronics manufacturers. Philips, Osram, DuPont and Delta Electronics will all launch light-emitting polymer displays using CDT's invention this year and the first full-colour mobile phone screen should be with us in 2003, developed by Seiko-Epson. Displays can be made on one sheet of glass or even on plastic so they could be rolled up!

"Light-emitting polymers are the way to a true flat-screen TV or computer display," says Professor Friend. "They give a picture as good as the cathode ray tubes in conventional televisions without all the bulk and complexity. It has been an exciting time to watch our breakthrough in the University become a real engineering reality in the company."

Professor Friend has also found another application for his polymers as semiconductors. They can be printed directly onto any kind of surface to make a printed circuit-board, far more cheaply than conventional silicon chips. He co-founded another company, Plastic Logic Ltd, in 2000 to develop this technology - it is expected to grow to employ 30 people this year.

ends

Notes for editors

1. The Academy's Silver Medals were instigated in 1995. They are awarded annually to engineers who have made outstanding contributions to British engineering. Candidates must be aged under 50. Up to four medals may be awarded each year.
   
   This year's other Silver Medals go to Dr Andrew Rickman, Chairman of Bookham Technology plc in Abingdon; Nader Azarmi, head of the BTexact Intelligent Systems team at Adastral Park, Ipswich; and Colin Smith, Rolls-Royce Director of Engineering and Technology - Civil Aerospace, based in Derby.
   
   
2. Britain's biggest engineering prize, the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, is worth £50,000 and the MacRobert gold medal to the ultimate winner, who will be announced in November.
   
   CDT is one of four finalists for this year's MacRobert Award. The others are: BP Chemicals for Innovene, a new high-productivity polyethylene technology; Mott MacDonald for tunnel jacking on the Boston Central Artery, USA; and Surface Technology Systems plc for the advanced silicon etch process.
   
   
3. The Royal Academy of Engineering honours the UK's most distinguished engineers and aims to take advantage of the enormous wealth of engineering knowledge and experience that its one thousand Fellows possess. It exists to pursue, encourage and maintain excellence in the whole field of engineering to promote the advancement of the science, art and practice of engineering for the benefit of the public.
   

For more information please contact:

Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering
tel: 020 7227 0536 (direct), mobile: 07989 513045, email: jane...@...org.uk

[High Quality Video (5980KB)]
[Low Quality Video (1455KB)]

 RSS Feed