Dr David Fyfe, CEO of Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), has today been awarded the Institute of Physics' Business and Innovation Medal together with Professor Sir Richard Friend of Cambridge University for "guiding the company CDT to a pre-eminent position in the development of light-emitting polymers and in the development of the technology for flat-panel displays and lighting."
The prize is one of four gold medals awarded annually by the Institute, and is for outstanding contributions to the organisation or application of physics in an industrial or commercial context.
The discovery that certain polymers can emit light when an electric current is passed through them was made by Jeremy Burroughes (CTO at CDT) under the guidance of Professor Richard Friend with assistance from Professor Donal Bradley at the University of Cambridge in the late 1980s.
Realising the potential for the technology, Friend and colleagues promoted the spinout of the intellectual property into CDT which was initially funded by the University, business angels and local venture capitalists.
Fyfe joined CDT in 2000, leading its expansion from a laboratory-based research company to one with a manufacturing process development line, and also started making inkjet printers in California to enable the technology to be applied on an industrial scale.
From 2000 until late-2004, when David Fyfe led the company to a NASDAQ listing, nearly $80m was raised to expanded activities.
Following a joint-venture in 2005, Sumitomo Chemical bought CDT in September 2007.
CDT now has 160 employees and has licensed its technology to companies including Panasonic, Seiko Epson, Dai Nippon Printing and DuPont.