Dr Philip J Wyatt, the chief executive officer and founder of Wyatt Technology, has been awarded the 2009 prize for Industrial Application of Physics by the American Physical Society (APS).
By leading the commercialisation of laser light scattering, Dr Wyatt has been selected to receive the prize to acknowledge industrial applications of physics with an intention to publicise the value of physics for industrial development.
Dr Wyatt was the sole award recipient selected by the committee from five finalists of the 16 preliminary nominations.
The prize will be presented at the APS March 2009 annual meeting in Pittsburgh, at a special Ceremonial Session.
Dr Wyatt began his investigations of the practical applications of the inverse scattering problem in 1967 with studies of means to differentiate bacterial species from one another.
Together with his colleagues, most importantly Dr David T Phillips, he modified a traditional light scattering photometer to incorporate a laser light source.
This instrument prototype was then used to measure a variety of physical and structural properties of bacterial cells in solution.
These early studies included the effects of temperature as well as antimicrobials on such cells within a few minutes.
This instrumentation was then further extended to permit such scattering measurements to be made and interpreted from scattering by single particles.
These included bacteria, spores, photochemical smog particles and fly ash particles.
Early laser-based commercial instruments were then developed and sold in 1971.
Dr Wyatt founded Wyatt Technology in 1982 to develop, manufacture and market a new class of laser-based analytical instruments.
These instruments incorporated the concept of making simultaneous measurements of light scattered from solutions, and even single particles, into a broad range of scattering angles.
Such measurements are referred to generally by the term multi-angle light scattering, or simply MALS.
The instruments are mainly used to develop new polymers, nanoparticles, and pharmaceuticals.
By 2000, the product line had expanded to include refractometers and devices to fractionate liquid dispersed samples.
The application of Wyatt Technology's multi-angle light scattering photometers in pharmaceutical industry demonstrates the potential of such instruments in the development of new biologicals.
