Judith Driscoll, Professor of Materials Science at the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, has been named winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Interdisciplinary Prize 2024.  Professor Driscoll won the prize for interdisciplinary work to realise unprecedented properties in a broad variety of functional oxide devices. She also receives £5000 and a medal.

Professor Driscoll’s research investigates oxide thin film materials for new forms of computing and clean energy generation. These materials could hold the key to new forms of low-power brain-like computing or for achieving a clean energy source, a process that uses powerful superconducting magnets. These films may even be the key to splitting water into green hydrogen.

Oxide thin film materials have a wide range of properties and are also remarkably stable and non-toxic. However, unlocking their full potential requires precise engineering at the atomic level and a range of disciplines from chemistry to physics to engineering.

After receiving the prize, Professor Driscoll said: “I am very happy indeed to receive this prestigious award. I have seen over the decades of my career how the interdisciplinary field of materials science has grown so enormously as it is so critical to turn chemicals into real-world applications. I have enjoyed greatly seeing my basic science ideas go beyond just research papers to being translated to industry. I am therefore very pleased and honoured that my efforts and those also of my dedicated team members have been rewarded by RSC.”