Recognition for Prof Wilson Poon for his contribution to soft matter physics

Congratulations to Prof Wilson Poon who has been awarded the Sam Edwards Medal and Prize for his outstanding contributions to the fundamental study of condensed matter physics, statistical physics and biophysics using model colloidal systems.

Prof Poon is known internationally for his groundbreaking research on colloid physics. In the early 1990s he was one of the first scientists to recognise the potential of combining hard-sphere colloids with depletion interactions to create model systems with fully tuneable interactions. Using these systems, Prof Poon has worked together with collaborators and addressed fundamental questions in condensed matter physics such as the nature of the liquid state and of kinetic arrest in glasses and gels.

From around 2005, Prof Poon began working on biophysics.  Since then his work on active particles, including both bacteria and synthetic colloidal swimmers, has provided impetus for theory development in the frontier area of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and thrown light on practically important biological phenomena such as the growth of biofilms. He has also recently conducted pioneering work on the rheology of dense, non-Brownian suspensions, an industrially very important but poorly-understood class of soft materials.

In the last five years alone, he has published 13 high impact papers in these new research areas. Some of these have originated from industrial collaborations through the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP). Set up by Poon in 2012, ECFP has now worked with more than 40 companies in multiple sectors, demonstrating the practical utility of ‘model systems’ and the fecundity of industrial collaborations for generating basic science.  

The Sam Edwards Medal and Prize is one of the Institute of Physics’ ‘Silver Subject Medals’ and is awarded annually to recognise and reward the highest quality research and application of physics.