The Young Medal and Prize is a prize awarded on odd numbered years by the Institute of Physics

Institute of Physics

The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics. It has a worldwide membership of around 40,000....

 in the memory of Thomas Young

Thomas Young (scientist)

Thomas Young was an English polymath. He is famous for having partly deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics before Jean-François Champollion eventually expanded on his work...

 for distinguished research in the field of optics

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...

, including physics outside the visible region.

Young Medalists

2009 - Leslie Allen and Miles Padgett

2008 - Patrick Gill

2007 - James Roy Taylor

2005 - Philip Russell

Philip Russell

Philip St. John Russell, FRS, is the Director of the third division of the Max Planck Research Group at the Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. His area of research is "photonics and new materials"...

2003 - J Roy Sambles

Roy Sambles

John Roy Sambles, FRS is an English experimental physicist.Sambles, originally from Callington in Cornwall, studied physics at Imperial College, London, gaining his BSc and PhD degrees there, and has since published over 400 papers in international journals. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal...

2001 - Stephen J Pennycook

1999 - Peter Leonard Knight

1997 - Keith Burnett

Keith Burnett

Keith Burnett CBE FRS is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. According to the Yorkshire Post his salary is £251,000.Burnett was born in Llwynypia in the Rhondda Valley. He studied Physics at Jesus College, Oxford obtaining a BA in 1972 then a DPhil in 1979...

1995 - John Rarity

John Rarity

John G. Rarity is professor of optical communication systems in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol, a post he has held since 1 January 2003. He is an international expert on quantum optics, quantum cryptography and quantum communication using single...

 and Paul Richard Tapster

1993 - John Christopher Dainty

1991 - Parameswaran Hariharan

1989 - Leonard Mandel

Leonard Mandel

Leonard Mandel was the Lee DuBridge Professor Emeritus of Physics and Optics at the University of Rochester when he died at the age of 73 at his home in Pittsford, New York. He contributed immensely to theoretical and experimental optics...

1987 - Rodney Loudon

1985 - John David Lawson

John D. Lawson (scientist)

John David Lawson FRS was a British engineer and physicist.He was born in Coventry and educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School before going on to St John's College, Cambridge, to study for the short Mechanical Sciences degree, including a special wartime radio course...

1983 - James Morris Burch

1981 - Nicholas John Phillips

Nicholas J. Phillips

Nicholas John Phillips was an English physicist, notable for the development of photochemical processing techniques for the color hologram...

1979 - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji is a French physicist and Nobel Laureate. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms...

1977 - Robert Clark Jones

Robert Clark Jones

R. Clark Jones was an American physicist working inthe field of Optics.He studied at Harvard University and received his PhD in 1941.Until 1944 he worked at the Bell Labs, later until 1982 with the Polaroid Corporation....

1975 - Daniel Joseph Bradley

Daniel Joseph Bradley

Daniel Joseph Bradley FRS, was an Irish physicist, and Emeritus Professor of Optical Electronics, at Trinity College, Dublin...

1973 - Walter Thompson Welford

1971 - Charles Gorrie Wynne

Charles Gorrie Wynne

Charles Gorrie Wynne FRS was a significant figure in optical lens design.-References:...

1969 - Giuliano Toraldo di Francia

1967 - Dennis Gabor

Dennis Gabor

Dennis Gabor CBE, FRS was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and inventor, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics....

1965 - André Maréchal

André Maréchal

Robert Gaston André Maréchal was a French researcher and administrator in optics.André Maréchal, an OSA Honorary Member and Fellow and former director general of the French Institut d’Optique...

1963 - Charles Hard Townes

Charles Hard Townes

Charles Hard Townes is an American Nobel Prize-winning physicist and educator. Townes is known for his work on the theory and application of the maser, on which he got the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics connected with both maser and laser devices. He shared the Nobel...

 and Arthur Leonard Schawlow

Arthur Leonard Schawlow

Arthur Leonard Schawlow was an American physicist. He is best remembered for his work on lasers, for which he shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn.-Biography:...

External links

• Information about the award at the Institute of Physics