Professor Peter Norreys has been awarded the Société Française de Physique and Institute of Physics Prix Fernand Holweck. The gold medal recognises his outstanding contributions to fundamental studies of high energy density plasmas using high power petawatt-class lasers, including fast ignition inertial fusion, particle acceleration and ultra-bright X-ray sources.
Professor Norreys is the University of Oxford’s Professor of Inertial Fusion Science, from 2013, and was Individual Merit Fellow of the Central Laser Facility, UKRI-STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, until 2021. He has devoted his career to conducting a series of fundamental experiments to characterise energy transport in solid-density and compressed targets using petawatt-class lasers, pioneering many first studies of electron and ion beam acceleration, neutron beams and ultra-bright X-ray sources. His scientific papers have focused on high energy density plasmas, among them 45 Physical Review Letters, three articles in Science, and 15 Nature-family articles, supported by authorship of the supporting grants to the Research Councils, with eminent colleagues in the UK, EU, US and Japan.
‘I am delighted to be recognised by the IoP and SFP with the 2025 Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize,’ comments Professor Norreys. ‘I extend my appreciation to my colleagues and friends in the UK, France and internationally for their support and collaborations over many years.’
‘Peter is a very worthy recipient of this award,’ comments Professor Andrew Boothroyd, Head of Department. ‘It seems only fitting that he heard of it on his way back to the UK from the Ecole Polytechnique; he has played a key role in national and international collaborations over the years and continues to lead the way in high energy density plasma science. He is also an excellent colleague who gives his time generously to the benefit of the department.’
The Fernand Holweck prize was founded in 1945 by the Physical Society of London to honour the memory of the eminent French physicist Fernand Holweck (1890-1941), widely known for his work among scientists in the Allied nations, who was martyred and murdered by the Gestapo for his resistance work against Nazi occupation. Intended to maintain friendly links between English and French physicists, the prize is awarded annually, alternately to a French physicist by the Institute of Physics (IOP) and to an English physicist by the Société Française de Physique. The prize is one of the Société Française de Physique’s bilateral Grands Prix.