Richard Friend

Richard Friend
File:Richard Friend.jpg Friend in Finland in 2010
Born	Richard Henry Friend (1953-01-18) 18 January 1953 London
Fields	Optoelectronics Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes Thin-Film Field-Effect Transistors Time-resolved optical spectroscopy Perovskite solar cell Photovoltaics
Institutions	Eight19 Ltd Cavendish Laboratory University of Cambridge Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) Plastic Logic St John's College, Cambridge National University of Singapore
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge University of Paris-Sud
Thesis	Transport properties and lattice instabilities in one and two dimensional metals (1979)
Doctoral advisor	Abraham Yoffe Denis Jérome
Doctoral students	Henry Snaith
Known for	Plastic electronics OLED Organic field-effect transistor
Notable awards	Millennium Technology Prize (2010) IOP Swan Medal (2009) Kt (2003) Faraday Medal (2003) FREng (2002) Rumford Medal (1998) Europhysics Prize (1996) FRS (1993)
Spouse	Carol Anne Maxwell (née Beales)
Website www.phy.cam.ac.uk/directory/friendr www.oe.phy.cam.ac.uk/people/oestaff/rhf10.htm

Sir Richard Henry Friend (born 18 January 1953) FRS FREng is Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge and Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore. Friend's research concerns the physics and engineering of carbon-based semiconductors.

Education

Friend was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining a PhD in 1979.

Research

Friend's research has been applied to development of polymer field effect transistors, light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic diodes, optically pumped lasing and directly printed polymer transistors. He pioneered the study of organic polymers and the electronic properties of molecular semiconductors. He is also one of the principal investigators in the new Cambridge-based Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) on nanotechnology and co-founder of Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and Plastic Logic. Friend has over 600 publications and more than 20 patents. Friend’s research has been used to develop flat panel displays and future screens that can be rolled and transported.

Awards and honours

In March 2003 Friend won the IEE's Faraday Medal. He was knighted for "services to physics" in the 2003 Birthday Honours.

In 2010, Friend was elected as one of the three laureates of Millennium Technology Prize for the development of plastic electronics.

In 2011 he was awarded the Harvey Prize of the Technion in Israel. He is a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002.

His nomation for the Royal Society reads:

Distinguished for his experimental study of the electronic properties of novel materials, principally organic materials, both semiconductors and metals, and inorganic materials with "low-dimensional" electronic structure, including layer structure transition metal dichalcogenides and cuprate superconductors. He established the pressure/temperature phase diagrams for transition metal dichalcogenides, showing conditions for CDW (Charge Density Wave) phases and superconducting phases in TaS2, band crossing transition in TiS2 intercalation of transition metal dichalcogenides with various Lewis bases (alkali metals, amines), and use of controlled charge transfer to the host layer to fine-tune electronic structure in order to establish conditions for CDW superlattice formation, and mechanisms for charge transport. He has made a major contribution to understanding the conditions for metallic, superconducting, magnetic and insulating ground states in organic charge transfer salts. Established the pressure/temperature phase diagram for the incommensurate and commensurate Charge Density Wave phases of TTF-TCNQ. He made the first observations of de Haas van Alphen oscillations in magnetic susceptibility in an organic metal. He and his group has developed polymer processing techniques for conjugated polymers, and demonstrated non-linear electronic excitations through electrical and optical measurements. First construction of MOSFET (Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) with polyacetylene as active semiconductor, and demonstration of novel mechanism of operation, with novel behaviour and made the first construction of efficient, large area, polymeric semi-conductor LED's (Light Emitting Diodes), based on polyphenylene-vinylene.

Personal life

Friend is married to Carol Anne Maxwell (née Beales) with whom he has two daughters. His brother Peter Friend is a professor of transplantation and director of the Oxford Transplant Centre.