Professor Mark Miodownik MBE awarded the Thornton Medal

Congratulations to Professor Mark Miodownik MBE, Professor of Materials & Society at UCL Mechanical Engineering, who has been recognised by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) with a Thornton Medal award.

The IOM3 – one of the UK's leading science and engineering institutions – awards the medal to speakers invited to present at its conference or a specially convened meeting. Professor Miodownik is the winner of this year's award for his involvement in the PVC 2021 conference, specifically for his talk Innovating with the Public, in which he suggests ways to innovate with the public to help solve the plastic waste crisis.

On his award win, Professor Miodownik said:

“"I am very honoured to receive this medal on behalf of my whole research team. We have been working on the sustainability of materials since 2018, using a systems approach to design out plastic and metal waste from the products we all use. UCL is a great place to do this work because there is a serious commitment to sustainability – thanks to everyone who is making a difference."

Professor Miodownik is Director of the UCL Institute of Making and a theme leader in the UCL Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering. The medal is the most recent award in his extensive list of achievements, which also includes being elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014, his award of the Faraday Medal by the Royal Society in 2017, and an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting in 2018.