Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize winner 2020
Professor George Smith FRS
The Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize 2020 is awarded to Professor George Smith FRS for pioneering and leading the development of engineering alloys through the invention and application of the three-dimensional atom probe, making profound contributions to basic understanding and industrial applications.
Professor Smith's achievement will be celebrated at Anniversary Day on 30 November 2020. The prize is given with a medal and gift of £2,000.
Return to this year's Royal Society medal, award and prize winners.
The award
The Prize was established with support from the Worshipful Company of Armourers & Brasiers', a livery company originally comprised of armourers and brass workers. The first award was made in 1985.
The Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize is awarded biennially (in even years), for excellence in basic research in functional or structural materials where the research is clearly motivated by use of these materials. The concept of 'use-inspired basic research' describes research seeking fundamental understanding that is motivated or inspired by considerations of practical use. The medal is of silver gilt, is awarded biennielly and is accompanied by a gift of £2,000.
Nominations
The call for nominations is now closed. The next round of nominations will open in November 2021.
Past winners
Professor Steve Armes FRS was awarded the 2018 Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize for his pioneering development of colloidal nanocomposite particles. He has demonstrated many applications; his fruitful collaborations with companies has inspired three successful commercial products.
Professor Neil Alford MBE FREng was awarded the 2016 Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize for his outstanding contributions to materials research with benefit to society, especially the development of ultra-low-loss microwave dielectrics for communications.
Professor Ivan Parkin was awarded the 2014 Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize in recognition of his insight, synthesis, development and commercialisation of coatings. In particular inorganic-oxide self-cleaning coatings for windows and anti-microbial coatings to combat hospital acquired infections.
See full list of all past winners of the Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers' Company Prize.