Professor Roy Sambles (FRS) has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP) for his contributions in pure and applied physics, and as a superb ambassador for physics through outreach and an outstanding President of the IOP. He has made significant contributions to our understanding of the melting process, spin waves in metals, resistivity of thin metal films, molecular rectification, liquid crystal optics, plasmonics and microwave and acoustic metamaterials. Most recently, Roy has focused his research interests on metamaterials and their application to microwaves and sound, and he has led the EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre in Metamaterials from 2014 to 2017.
Roy has served on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Defence Science Advisory Committee and as the only academic scientist on the board of the Counter Terrorism Centre. He was a member of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework Panel for Physics and was recently appointed a Distinguished Visitor to the National Physical Laboratory. His outreach activities over the last seven years have reached more than 2,500 people and in 2013–17, when he was IOP President Elect, then President, he made some invaluable changes to the way the IOP works and interacts with its community.
Roy was made Honorary Fellow alongside professors Sheila Rowan and Sir Peter Williams – please see the IOP news for more information: http://www.iop.org/news/18/august/page_71876.html
Very many congratulations to Roy for this achievement. It reflects the impact his life-long commitment and passion for science has made. He has inspired generations of new scientists, and created an incredibly strong network across academia, industry, and governmental institutions. Roy’s dedication to understanding, discovering, and finding solutions has contributed significantly to the national and international research progression in his field and beyond. The EPSRC CDT in Metamaterials exists thanks to his vision and leadership and allows the University of Exeter to be at the forefront of developing the next generation of leaders in academia and industry.
