YOUR BROWSER IS OUT-OF-DATE.
We have detected that you are using an outdated browser. Our service may not work properly for you. We recommend upgrading or switching to another browser.
Professor Samuel Stranks from the University of Cambridge, a specialist in optoelectronics, has been awarded the Lem Prize 2022. The statuette was presented at a gala ceremony in the auditorium of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.
- I am honoured and very happy to receive the award in person and to talk about the research conducted by my team. As scientists, we rely heavily on our research groups to stimulate the development of ideas and make a huge contribution to our research. It is wonderful to be able to work with such great people," - Prof Samuel Stranks said.
The laureate gave a lecture entitled 'The Future of Perovskites for Solar Power and Lighting' on the development of halide perovskite technology, in which he outlined, among other things, the challenges facing researchers to bring this technology into mass production in the short term.
The Lem Prize, worth 100,000 PLN, is awarded to young scientists (under 40 years of age) studying or conducting research in the European Union and associated countries. The international chapter evaluates their recent discovery or significant achievement in the broadly defined fields of science and engineering, with a strong focus on technology, interdisciplinarity, creativity, and vision.
- This year, 26 applications were received from fourteen different countries, including three entries from Poland. In the end, the competition jury awarded the prize to Prof. Samuel Stranks from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge - said Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs, rector. - His research into the optical and electronic properties of new semiconductors, including halide perovskites, was thus recognised, he added.
One of the highlights of the ceremony was the unveiling of a sculpture of Stanisław Lem, which stood next to the Library building. The three-metre-high work, made of Strzegom granite and designed by Grzegorz Niemyjski, PhD, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, depicts the writer's face in the form of small holes drilled into the surface of a block of rock.
Benefactors of the Lem Prize 2022 are:
Bergman Engineering, TestArmy Group, Santander Universidades, PGE Górnictwo i Energetyka Konwencjonalna S.A., PCC Rokita and Fundacja PKO Banku Polskiego.
Samuel Stranks is Professor of Optoelectronics and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, University of Cambridge.
His group focuses on the optical and electronic properties of emerging semiconductors including halide perovskites, carbon allotropes and organic semiconductors for low-cost electronics applications such as photovoltaics and lighting. Samuel Stranks completed his PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, receiving the 2012 Institute of Physics Roy Thesis Prize.
From 2012-2014, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University and Worcester College, Oxford, before holding a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014-2016) and starting his group in Cambridge in 2017.
Samuel Stranks received the 2016 IUPAP Young Scientist in Semiconductor Physics Prize, the 2017 Early Career Prize from the European Physical Society, the 2018 Henry Moseley Award and Medal from the Institute of Physics the 2019 Marlow Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the 2021 IEEE Stuart Wenham Award, the 2021 Leverhulme Prize in Physics, and the 2021 EES Lectureship.
He is a TED Fellow and was listed by the MIT Technology Review as one of the 35 under 35 innovators in Europe. Samuel Stranks is a co-founder of Swift Solar, a startup developing lightweight perovskite PV panels, and Sustain/Ed, a not-for-profit developing education for school-age children around climate change solutions.
He is also an Associate Editor at the AAAS journal Science Advances.
