Richard Friend was awarded the 2015 Von Hippel Award, which is the Materials Research Society's highest honour, at the MRS Fall Meeting. The annual award is given to an individual in recognition of their outstanding contribution to interdisciplinary research on materials.
The award was given for his pioneering research on highly original materials phenomena and device concepts, enabled by polymeric semiconducting materials, and imprinting an indelible influence on contemporary materials science and the new field of 'plastic electronics.'