Rank Prizes
The Rank Prizes comprise the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics and the Rank Prize for Nutrition, to recoginse, reward and encourage researchers working in the respective fields of optoelectronics and nutrition.[1]
The prizes are paid out of a fund known as The Rank Prize Funds, which were endowed by the industrialist, philanthropist and founder of the Rank Organisation, J. Arthur Rank and his wife Nell, via the Rank Foundation on 16 February 1972, not long before Arthur's death. The two Funds, the Human and Animal Nutrition and Crop Husbandry Fund and the Optoelectronics Fund, support sciences reflecting Rank's business interests through his "connection with the flour-milling and cinema and electronics industries", and also because Rank believed that they would be of great benefit to humanity. There are two Rank Prizes, and the Funds also recognise, support and foster excellence among young people in the two fields of nutrition and optoelectronics.[1] The Funds aim to advance and promote education and learning, for public benefit.[2]
Rank Prize for Optoelectronics
The Rank Prize for Optoelectronics supports, encourages, and rewards researchers working at the cutting edge of optoelectronics research,[1] initially (from 1976) awarded annually, now a biennial prize worth £30,000.[3] Optoelectronics relates to the interface between optics and electronics, and related phenomena.[2]
The Committee on Optoelectronics consists of the following people:[4]
- Donal Bradley CBE FRS (Chairman)
- Roberto Cipolla FREng[5]
- Helen Gleeson OBE
- Simon Laughlin FRS, neurobiologist[6]
- John Mollon DSc FRS
- Miles Padgett FRSE FRS
- Wilson Sibbett CBE FRS FRSE
- Maurice Skolnick FRS[7]
Past winners include:[3]
- 1978 – Charles K. Kao
- 1988 – T. Peter Brody
- 1995 – William Bradshaw Amos
- 1998 – Federico Capasso
- 2008 – Mandyam Srinivasan
- 2008 – Peter B. Denyer
- 2014 – Alf Adams
- 2018 – Jonathan C. Knight
- 2018 – Philip Russell
- 2018 – Tim Birks[8][9]
Rank Prize for Nutrition
The nutrition prize is for research in human and animal nutrition (distinct from animal husbandry), and crop husbandry.[2]
The Rank Prize for Nutrition was awarded at various intervals since 1976, but now also awarded biennially, and worth £40,000.[10]
In 2014 Australian biophysicist Graham Farquhar and the CSIRO agronomist Richard Richards were awarded the Rank Prize in Nutrition, for "pioneering the understanding of isotope discrimination in plants and its application to breed wheat varieties that use water more efficiently", which related to a discovery the pair made in the 1980s.[11][12][13][14]
Other winners include:[15]
- 1981 − Hugo Kortschak, Marshall (Hal) Davidson Hatch and Roger Slack, for "outstanding work on the mechanism of photosynthesis which established the existence of an alternative pathway for the initial fixation of carbon dioxide in some important food plants".
- 1982 − Hamish Munro, for his work on the protein metabolism of mammals.
- 1989 − Vernon R. Young, for his work on the amino acid metabolism of man.
- 1992 − Kenneth Blaxter, lifetime award given posthumously.
- 1995 – Richard Smithells and B.M. Hibbard, for "pioneering studies into the role of micronutrient deficiencies, principally folic acid deficiency, and neural tube defects".
- 2010 − Peter E. Hartmann[16] and Robyn Owens for their "research on human lactation, including methods for the non-invasive measurement of the rate of milk secretion".
References
- Traeger-Cowan, Carol (November 2008). "The Rank Prize Funds: Nurturing Advancement in Optoelectronics". MRS Bulletin. 33 (11): 999–1000. doi:10.1557/mrs2008.219. Retrieved 11 July 2020 – via Cambridge University Press.
Published online... 31 January 2011
PDF - "Rank Prize Funds". Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Past Prizes in Optoelectronics". The Rank Prize Funds. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Optoelectronics Committee". Home. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Roberto Cipolla". University of Cambridge. Department of Engineering. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Simon Laughlin". Royal Society. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Maurice Skolnick". Royal Society. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Tim Birks". University of Bath's research portal. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "T.A. Birks". IEEE Xplore. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Past Prizes in Nutrition". The Rank Prize Funds. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Rank Prize". ANU Research School of Biology (in Xhosa). Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Richard Richards". The Conversation. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Luminaries: Richard Richards". Plantae. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Richard Richards". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Prizes awarded by the Human and Animal Nutrition and Crop Husbandry Fund". The Rank Prize. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- "Peter Hartmann". University of Western Australia. Retrieved 11 July 2020.