Physics education and widening participation within it and public engagement within physics

Marie Curie-Sklodowska Medal and Prize

In 2016 Council established the Marie Curie-Sklodowska Medal and Prize.

Marie Curie’s achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity. Curie discovered two new chemical elements – radium and polonium. She carried out the first research into the treatment of tumours with radiation, and she was the founder of the Curie Institutes, which are important medical research centres. Marie Curie is the only person ever to have won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry.

Terms

The award shall be made for distinguished contributions to physics education and to widening participation within it. The medal will be silver and will be accompanied by a prize of £1,000 and a certificate.

Lise Meitner Medal and Prize

In 2016 Council established the Lise Meitner Medal and Prize.

Meitner was an Austrian physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was the first woman to become a full professor of physics in Germany. In 1944, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to her long-time collaborator Otto Hahn for work on nuclear fission. In the 1990s, the records of the committee that decided on that prize were opened. Several scientists and journalists have called her exclusion “unjust”, and Meitner has received a flurry of posthumous honours, including the naming of chemical element 109 as meitnerium in 1997.

Terms

The award shall be made for distinguished contributions to public engagement within physics. The medal will be silver and will be accompanied by a prize of £1,000 and a certificate.

Lise Meitner awards receipients