Rank Prizes

Key takeaways

Rank Prizes belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rank Prizes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rank Prizes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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. The prizes are funded by the charity Rank Prize, which was 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. 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. Rank Prize also recognises, supports and fosters excellence among young and emerging researchers in the two fields of nutrition and optoelectronics. Rank Prize aims to advance and promote education and learning for public benefit.

Rank Prize for Optoelectronics The Rank Prize for Optoelectronics supports, encourages, and rewards researchers working at the cutting edge of optoelectronics research, initially (from 1976) awarded annually, now a biennial prize worth £100,000. Optoelectronics relates to the interface between optics and electronics, and related phenomena. The Committee on Optoelectronics consists of the following people:

Donal Bradley (Chairman) Roberto Cipolla Martin D. Dawson Helen Gleeson Anya Hurlbert Jonathan Knight John Mollon Alison Noble Miles Padgett Past winners include:

1978 – Charles K. Kao 1980 – George Gray 1982 – C. Thomas Elliott and Calvin Quate 1988 – T. Peter Brody 1991 – David N. Payne and William Alexander Gambling 1992 – William Newsome and Semir Zeki 1993 – Horace W. Babcock and Arthur Ashkin 1995 – William Bradshaw Amos, Marvin Minsky and Chuck Hull 1997 – Peter Mansfield 1998 – Federico Capasso, 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) Paul Alivisatos, M.P. Bruchez, W.C.W. Chan, S.M. Nie, S. Weiss (for realisation of quantum dot nanocrystals as biological labels) 2008 – Mandyam Srinivasan and Peter B. Denyer 2014 – Alf Adams and Eli Yablonovitch 2018 – Jonathan C. Knight, Philip Russell and Tim Birks 2022 − Michael Grätzel, Akihiro Kojima, Michael Lee, Tsutomu Miyasaka, Nam-Gyu Park, Sang Il Seok, Henry Snaith 2024 − Junzhong Liang, Donald T. Miller, Austin Roorda, David R. Williams 2026 − Susumu Noda

Rank Prize for Nutrition The Rank Prize for Nutrition is for research in human and animal nutrition (distinct from animal husbandry), and crop husbandry. The Committee on Nutrition consists of the following people:

John Mathers (Chairman) Malcolm Bennett Tim George Michael Gooding Sarah Gurr Anne-Marie Minihane Susan Ozanne Ann Prentice John Wilding The Rank Prize for Nutrition was awarded at various intervals since 1976, but is now also awarded biennially, worth £100,000. 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. Other winners include:

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". 2010 − Peter E. Hartmann 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". 2024 – Mike Lean and Roy Taylor 2026 – David E. Salt and Martin Broadley

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rank Prizes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rank Prizes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rank Prizes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rank Prizes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rank Prizes

In research: Rank Prizes appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rank Prizes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rank Prizes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Awards established in the 1970s, British science and technology awards, Nutrition, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rank Prizes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Rank Prizes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rank Prizes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rank Prizes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rank Prizes in simple terms?

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.

Why does Rank Prizes matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rank Prizes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rank Prizes.