Winners of 2022 Rank Prize Announced Rank Prize for Nutrition awarded to Professor Cathie Martin FRS

LONDON, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Rank Prize, which has been celebrating outstanding scientific breakthroughs since 1972. Founded by Lord J. Arthur Rank, a British industrialist and philanthropist, the Rank Prize is awarded biennially in the fields of nutrition and optoelectronics: two areas related to Lord Rank's business interests. The prize is awarded to individuals who have made a significant contribution in these fields, where an initial idea has been carried through to practical application that has or will have demonstrable benefit to humanity.

The winner of the 2022 Rank Prize for Nutrition is Professor Cathie Martin FRS for outstanding research into plant genetics and metabolism leading to enhanced nutritional qualities of fruits and vegetables.

Professor John C. Mathers, Chair of Rank Prize's Nutrition Committee: "Professor Martin's outstanding research combines fundamental insights into the genetics of metabolic processes in plants and how we can use them to enhance the nutritional composition of human foods. She is a powerful advocate, and practitioner, of plant science for human health. As we tackle the twin challenges of increasing human health and protecting the health of the planet, her research is globally significant."

The winners of the 2022 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics are seven internationally leading scientists, from several research laboratories, who have pioneered the development of new solar cell technology based on perovskite semiconductors which promises to play a key role in the future of solar power:

• Professor Michael Graetzel
• Dr Akihiro Kojima
• Dr Michael Lee
• Professor Tsutomu (Tom) Miyasaka
• Professor Nam-Gyu Park
• Professor Sang Il Seok
• Professor Henry Snaith FRS

Professor Donal Bradley CBE FRS, Chair of Rank Prize's Optoelectronics Committee: "The Rank Prize Optoelectronics Committee is delighted to recognise the outstanding achievements of these internationally leading researchers. Their work is an excellent example of fundamental contributions to physical science being rapidly and successfully translated into new technology that is poised to address truly urgent societal challenges linked to climate change. It is particularly gratifying that we have been able to announce this recognition in the lead up to the COP-26 UN Climate Change Conference."

The prizes will be formally awarded at an event in London on 17 January, 2022.

About Rank Prize
We bring together young researchers and the most eminent in their fields. Those fields are nutrition and optoelectronics: two disciplines our founder Lord Rank built businesses upon.

We support talented researchers with grants, studentships and lectures.

We host symposia unlike any others. Together, we discuss. We debate. We challenge. We spur each other on, and make connections that last.

And with our Prize, we celebrate the breakthrough ideas that emerge, the people behind them, and the difference they make to the world.

Find out more: www.rankprize.org

Contact:
Amy Douthett, Rank Prize
amy.douthett@rankprize.org