Dr Rebecca Dewey has been awarded the 2024 Institute of Physics Phillips Award in recognition of her contributions to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, including promoting, updating, and improving the accessibility of the I am a Physicist Girlguiding Badge, and engaging with British Sign Language users.
Dr Dewey is a researcher at the University of Nottingham working across the Schools of Physics and Medicine with her current project using MRI to investigate the long term effects of exposure to loud noises. Rebecca is also a passionate advocate for women in science and has been involved in a number of outreach events including Pint of Science and Soapbox Science.
Rebecca says: "My work brings me into contact with the general public a lot as I recruit healthy volunteers into brain imaging studies for research. I'm always needing to explain what I do in innovative ways, and this really brings home to me the importance of clear, engaging scientific communication with diverse audiences. Since finishing my PhD, I've spent the last 12 years working in hearing research, so I've worked with people experiencing all different degrees of hearing losses and deafness, as well as other complex needs, and so I aim to be inclusive in all the research I undertake, as well as everything I disseminate
I'm passionate about making my research findings, as well as those of my colleagues in all areas of science, all around the world, accessible and interesting to diverse audiences.
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body and learned society for physics, and the leading body for practising physicists, in the UK and Ireland.
Its annual awards proudly reflect the wide variety of people, places, organisations and achievements that make physics such an exciting discipline.
The IOP awards celebrate physicists at every stage of their career; from those just starting out through to physicists at the peak of their careers, and those with a distinguished career behind them.
They also recognise and celebrate companies which are successful in the application of physics and innovation, as well as employers who demonstrate their commitment and contribution to scientific and engineering apprenticeship schemes.
Congratulating this year's Award winners, Institute of Physics President, Professor Sir Keith Burnett said:
"On behalf of the Institute of Physics, I want to congratulate all of this year's award winners.
"Today's world faces many challenges which physics will play an absolutely fundamental part in addressing, whether it's securing the future of our economy or the transition to sustainable energy production and net zero.
"Our award winners are in the vanguard of that work and each one has made a significant and positive impact in their profession, whether as a researcher, teacher, industrialist, technician or apprentice
"I hope they are incredibly proud of their achievements, they really should be.
"There is so much focus today on the opportunities generated by a career in physics and the potential our science has to transform our society and economy and I hope the stories of our winners will help to inspire future generations of scientists."
