October 13, 2025
Peter B Littlewood from UChicago has been awarded the 2025 Institute of Physics Gold Medal - Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize.
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body and learned society for physics, and the leading body for practicing physicists, in the UK and Ireland.
Its annual awards proudly reflect the wide variety of people, places, organizations and achievements that make physics such an exciting discipline.
The IOP Awards celebrate physicists at every stage of their career; from those just starting out through to physicists at the peak of their careers, and those with a distinguished career behind them.
They also recognize and celebrate companies that are successful in the application of physics and innovation, as well as employers who demonstrate their commitment and contribution to scientific and engineering apprenticeship schemes.
Littlewood has received his award for leading international research institutions, including Argonne National Laboratory and the Cavendish Laboratory, and especially as founding executive chair of the Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research.
“To lead and build research organizations is a privilege. It’s a special joy to create institutional and societal impact,” said Littlewood. “This prize really is owned by the teams at Chicago, Argonne, Cambridge and Faraday who did the hard work.”
Congratulating this year’s Award winners, Institute of Physics President Professor Michele Dougherty CBE FRS FInstP FRAS FRSSAf said: “On behalf of the Institute of Physics, I want to congratulate all of this year’s award winners on the significant and positive impact they have made in their profession, be it as a researcher, teacher, industrialist, technician or apprentice, and I hope they are incredibly proud of their achievements.
“It is becoming more obvious that the opportunities generated by a career in physics are many and varied—and the potential our science has to transform our society and economy in the modern world is huge.
“I hope our winners appreciate they are playing an important role in this community, and know how proud we are to celebrate their successes—I hope their stories will help to inspire current and future generations of scientists.”