Dr Kathy Wu, who completed her PhD in the Department of Physics at the University of Liverpool, has been awarded the 2025 Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics (IOP) for her “outstanding contributions to the development of a novel magnetic radical filter device, and for ongoing support of women and underrepresented groups in physics”.
During her time at Liverpool, Dr Wu made significant advances in the design, development, optimisation, and characterisation of a novel magnetic radical filter. Using inhomogeneous magnetic fields and evolutionary strategy optimisation methods, she produced beams of atomic and molecular radicals with carefully controlled properties. This enabled the generation of quantum-state-selected and velocity-selected radical beams free from contaminant species — an approach that has since been adopted by research groups worldwide.
Alongside collaborators, Dr Wu successfully combined the magnetic radical filter with a liquid surface set-up to perform proof-of-principle measurements of collisions at gas–liquid interfaces. These precise experimental measurements are important for atmospheric modelling to better understand how reactions occur on aerosol particles. The broader applications of this research span surface science, astrochemistry, and chemical physics.
Dr Wu’s research crosses traditional discipline boundaries, and she has used this interdisciplinary perspective — together with her own lived experience — to celebrate different viewpoints and champion those from underrepresented groups. She is profiled as a role model on the University’s Liverpool Women in Science and Engineering (LivWiSE) initiative: Kathy Wu – LivWiSE Role Model Profile. These ongoing contributions to research and to the broader physics community are truly exceptional.
Now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr Julia Lehman’s group at the University of Birmingham, Dr Wu is researching chemical reactions that occur in the dense molecular clouds of space.
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body for physics in the UK and Ireland. Its annual awards showcase the people, organisations and achievements that make physics so dynamic, celebrating talent at every career stage and recognising companies that contribute to innovation, apprenticeships and the wider physics community.
Congratulating this year’s award winners, Institute of Physics President Professor Michele Dougherty CBE FRS FInstP FRAS FRSSAf said:
“On behalf of the Institute of Physics, I want to congratulate all of this year’s award winners on the significant and positive impact they have made in their profession, be it as a researcher, teacher, industrialist, technician or apprentice, and I hope they are incredibly proud of their achievements.
“It is becoming more obvious that the opportunities generated by a career in physics are many and varied – and the potential our science has to transform our society and economy in the modern world is huge. I hope our winners appreciate they are playing an important role in this community, and know how proud we are to celebrate their successes – I hope their stories will help to inspire current and future generations of scientists.
Learn more about the IOP Awards here.
