Director of Research, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge

Professor Sir Richard Friend is at the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, where he held the Cavendish Professorship of Physics from 1995 to 2020. He is currently a Director of Research in the Department of Physics, and has support for his research programme from the ERC, the EPSRC and the Simons Foundation. His research encompasses the physics, materials science and engineering of semiconductor devices made with carbon-based semiconductors, particularly polymers. His research advances have shown that carbon-based semiconductors have significant applications in LEDs, solar cells, lasers, and electronics. These have been developed and exploited through a number of spin-off companies. His current research interests are directed to novel schemes that seek to improve the performance and cost of solar cells.

Professor Friend is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He has received many international awards for his research, including Laureate of the Millennium Prize for Technology (2010) the Harvey Prize (2011) of the Israel Institute of Technology and the von Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society (2015). He was knighted for "Services to Physics" in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, 2003.