FALMOUTH-based Hirst Magnetic Instruments has been awarded a prestigious Institute of Physics Business Innovation Award.

The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body and learned society for physics, and the leading body for practising physicists, in the UK and Ireland.

The IOP’s Business Awards are unique in the UK and Ireland in recognising the significant contribution that physicists and physics make in industry.

There are three categories of awards – Business Innovation, Business Start-Up and the Lee Lucas Award for the medical and healthcare sector – so businesses at any stage of their development are eligible, from start-ups to multi-national corporations.

The IOP Business Innovation Award specifically recognises and celebrates companies that have excelled in innovation, delivering significant economic and/or societal impact through the application of physics.

Institute of Physics president, Jonathan Flint, said: “The IOP Business Awards recognise and reward the achievements of physics-based businesses of all sizes; innovative companies that have developed new technologies or repurposed existing ones, and that are at the cutting edge of the UK and Ireland’s scientific research and development.

“These companies, old and new, large and small, have the power to drive the economy. They use the applications of physics to create positive individual, social, industrial and economic change, both at home and overseas.

“Rarely has the need to recognise and encourage our scientists been more apparent. We must continue to encourage, reward and invest in our researchers. Their commitment, drive and imaginations help to keep us comfortable, healthy and safe.”