Nobel Prize winning physicists, a former research council chief executive, a pioneer in stellar physics, a physics education innovator, and the man who ushered thousands of UK physics undergraduates into the Institute of Physics (IOP) have all been made Honorary Fellows.
Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester have been awarded honorary fellowships following their exceptional track record in experimental condensed matter physics, and their success in demonstrating and measuring the properties of their Nobel Prize-worthy discovery, the one-atom thick 'wonder material', graphene.
Last year's Nobel Prize in Physics winners are joined by key figures in UK and international physics, Professors Ian G Halliday and Dame Carole Jordan.
Professor Halliday, who served as the Chief Executive of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), and played a key role in reversing the decline in funding for particle physics and astronomy in the UK, has most recently brought many of Scotland's universities' physics departments together to create the largest united physics grouping in the UK, the Scottish University Physics Alliance (SUPA).
Dame Carole, currently an emeritus professor at the University of Oxford, was the IOP's first vice-president for science and the Royal Astronomical Society's first female president. In her research career, she was the first to identify the atomic or molecular origins of cool stars' emission lines, and is hailed for developing a technique to determine the temperature of stars' plasma.
For important contributions to the education and development of young physicists, Professors Michael Payne, Chair of Computational Physics at the University of Cambridge, and Jon Ogborn from the University of London's Institute of Education have become honorary fellows.
Professor Michael Payne pioneered an IOP undergraduate recruitment initiative in the late '90s which led to approximately 4,000 student members joining the IOP before free e-membership was introduced.
Professor Ogborn has been awarded an honorary fellowship for having a profound impact on physics education. Having directed two of the UK's most innovative school physics education projects - the Nuffield Advanced Physics Project and Advancing Physics – Ogborn has contributed at the highest level to education research, initial teacher education and curriculum development in the sciences.
Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, IOP's president, said, "Our six new honorary fellows epitomise success in their respective fields. Whether with an illustrious research career, having caused a revolution in physics education, or transforming the composition of the Institute's membership base to strengthen our connection with upcoming generations of physicists, all have had a profound impact on physics and these honorary fellowships are just one way to say thank you for all their work."