Lady Rhondda Award 2026: Professor Paul Meredith

The Learned Society of Wales’s inaugural Lady Rhondda Award for Outstanding Achievement was awarded to Professor Paul Meredith in recognition of a career spent grappling with some of our most pressing priorities. These include the pivotal role of semiconductors in so much of modern life, and the need to decarbonise the production processes that produce them.  

Born, raised and educated in Wales, Paul is a major landmark in the country’s research environment, with a fundamental role in our semiconductor industry. His ability to inspire the next generation of researchers in the field is evident in his leadership of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in the Semiconductor Industry, which is run from Swansea University. 

His reach, meanwhile, is international. His extensive time spent working in Australia saw him contribute to Queensland’s world-leading renewable energy target policy and develop three start-ups, while his many patents, scientific papers and prolific record in winning grants are the result of work across the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. 

Paul’s colleagues talk of him as having that precious gift of being able to translate academic research into real world applications, making him a fitting recipient of this award that recognises outstanding achievement.