Professor Hywel Morgan receives prestigious Wolfson Merit Award

The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has awarded Professor Hywel Morgan the Wolfson Research Merit Award for his outstanding research work.

Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.

Professor Hywel Morgan, professor of Bioelectronics in Electronics and Computer Science and Deputy Director of the University’s Institute for Life Sciences, received his award for his research into ‘Low cost thin film transistor electronic systems for healthcare and diagnostics’.

Professor Morgan says: “My research focuses on the fusion of low cost electronic devices with microfluidic systems for next generation miniature diagnostic systems. The long term goal is to develop sophisticated yet inexpensive analytical devices that have a wide range of applications, from allowing doctors to make faster and more accurate diagnosis, to answering fundamental research questions about disease.

“I am thrilled and honoured to have received this award from the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation. It will allow me and my group to push forward our research in this very exciting and fast moving interdisciplinary field.â€?

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering also commented: “I am delighted to see this recognition of Professor Morgan’s outstanding interdisciplinary research which is having a strong impact in this area of medical diagnosis.â€?

Professor Morgan is one of two University of Southampton professors among the Royal Society’s new Wolfson Research Merit appointments. Professor Tim Minshull, a marine geophysicist within Ocean and Earth Science, has also received the award for his research into ‘The ocean-continent transition at magma-poor rifted margins’.