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The Rank Prizes comprise the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics and the Rank Prize for Nutrition. The prizes recognise, reward and encourage researchers working in the respective fields of optoelectronics and nutrition.^[1]

The prizes are funded by the charity The Rank Prize Funds, which were endowed by the industrialist, philanthropist and founder of the Rank Organisation, J. Arthur Rank and his wife Nell, via the Rank Foundation on 16 February 1972, not long before Arthur's death. The two Funds, the Human and Animal Nutrition and Crop Husbandry Fund and the Optoelectronics Fund, support sciences which reflect Rank's business interests through his "connection with the flour-milling and cinema and electronics industries", and which Rank believed would be of great benefit to humanity. The Rank Prize Funds also recognise, support and foster excellence among young and emerging researchers in the two fields of nutrition and optoelectronics.^[1] The Funds aim to advance and promote education and learning for public benefit.^[2]

Rank Prize for Optoelectronics

The Rank Prize for Optoelectronics supports, encourages, and rewards researchers working at the cutting edge of optoelectronics research,^[1] initially (from 1976) awarded annually, now a biennial prize worth £100,000.^[3] Optoelectronics relates to the interface between optics and electronics, and related phenomena.^[2]

The Committee on Optoelectronics consists of the following people:^[4]

Donal Bradley CBE FRS (Chairman)
Roberto Cipolla FREng^[5]
Martin D. Dawson FRSE
Helen Gleeson OBE
Anya Hurlbert
Simon Laughlin FRS, neurobiologist^[6]
John Mollon DSc FRS
Miles Padgett FRSE FRS
Wilson Sibbett CBE FRS FRSE
Maurice Skolnick FRS^[7]

Past winners include:^[3]

1978 – Charles K. Kao
1980 – George Gray
1982 – C. Thomas Elliott
1982 – Calvin Quate
1988 – T. Peter Brody
1991 – David N. Payne and William Alexander Gambling
1992 – William Newsome and Semir Zeki
1993 – Horace W. Babcock
1993 – Arthur Ashkin
1995 – William Bradshaw Amos
1995 – Marvin Minsky
1995 – Chuck Hull
1997 – Peter Mansfield
1998 – Federico Capasso
1998 – Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura
2000 – Winfried Denk and Watt W. Webb
2006 – Charles H. Bennett, Gilles Brassard and Stephen Wiesner for research on the original concept of quantum cryptography.^[8]
2006 – Paul Alivisatos, M.P. Bruchez, W.C.W. Chan, S.M. Nie,S. Weiss for realisation of quantum dot nanocrystals as biological labels^[8]
2008 – Mandyam Srinivasan
2008 – Peter B. Denyer
2014 – Alf Adams
2014 − Eli Yablonovitch
2018 – Jonathan C. Knight
2018 – Philip Russell
2018 – Tim Birks^[9]^[10]
2022 − Michael Graetzel and Nam-Gyu Park

Rank Prize for Nutrition

The Rank Prize for Nutrition is for research in human and animal nutrition (distinct from animal husbandry), and crop husbandry.^[2]

The Committee on Nutrition consists of the following people:

John Mathers PhD Hon FAfN (Chairman)
Malcolm Bennett
Michael Gooding
Peter Gregory FRASE
Sarah Gurr
Anne-Marie Minihane
Susan Ozanne
Ann Prentice OBE PHD
John Wilding

The Rank Prize for Nutrition was awarded at various intervals since 1976, but is now also awarded biennially, worth £100,000.^[11]

In 2014 Australian biophysicist Graham Farquhar and the CSIRO agronomist Richard Richards were awarded the Rank Prize in Nutrition, for "pioneering the understanding of isotope discrimination in plants and its application to breed wheat varieties that use water more efficiently", which related to a discovery the pair made in the 1980s.^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]

Other winners include:^[16]

1981 − Hugo Kortschak, Marshall (Hal) Davidson Hatch and Roger Slack, for "outstanding work on the mechanism of photosynthesis which established the existence of an alternative pathway for the initial fixation of carbon dioxide in some important food plants".
1982 − Hamish Munro, for his work on the protein metabolism of mammals.
1984 − Elsie Widdowson, for her work on the values of foods as nutrient sources, the effects of long-term undernutrition and starvation and the nature and control of the growth process.
1989 − Vernon R. Young, for his work on the amino acid metabolism of man.
1992 − Kenneth Blaxter, lifetime award given posthumously.
1995 – Richard Smithells and B.M. Hibbard, for "pioneering studies into the role of micronutrient deficiencies, principally folic acid deficiency, and neural tube defects".

2006 − J.C. van Lenteren, Marcel Dicke, and Louise E.M. Vet for "fundamental studies of plant-pest-natural enemy interactions and the development of practical methods of pest control".^[17]
2010 − Peter E. Hartmann^[18] and Robyn Owens for their "research on human lactation, including methods for the non-invasive measurement of the rate of milk secretion".
2020 – Stephen O'Rahilly
2022 – Cathie Martin "for outstanding research into plant genetics and metabolism leading to enhanced nutritional qualities of fruits and vegetables".^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Traeger-Cowan, Carol (November 2008). "The Rank Prize Funds: Nurturing Advancement in Optoelectronics". MRS Bulletin. 33 (11): 999–1000. doi:10.1557/mrs2008.219. Published online... 31 January 2011 PDF
^ ^a ^b ^c "Rank Prize Funds". Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Past Prizes in Optoelectronics". The Rank Prize Funds. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Optoelectronics Committee". Home. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Roberto Cipolla". University of Cambridge. Department of Engineering. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Simon Laughlin". Royal Society. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Maurice Skolnick". Royal Society. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Optoelectronics Winners Archive". Rank Prize. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
^ "Tim Birks". University of Bath's research portal. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "T.A. Birks". IEEE Xplore. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Past Prizes in Nutrition". The Rank Prize Funds. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Rank Prize". ANU Research School of Biology. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Richard Richards". The Conversation. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Luminaries: Richard Richards". Plantae. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Richard Richards". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Prizes awarded by the Human and Animal Nutrition and Crop Husbandry Fund". The Rank Prize. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
^ "Nutrition Winners Archive". Rank Prize. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
^ "Peter Hartmann". University of Western Australia. Retrieved 11 July 2020.