Marcus du Sautoy has been awarded The Sir George Thomson Gold Medal from the Institute of Measurement and Control. Awarded quinquennially, the Medal acknowledges contributions to measurement science resulting in fundamental improvements in the understanding of the nature of the physical world. Sir George Thomson was the first President of the Institute, which office he held from 1944 to 1948.
The award of the Medal to Professor du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, is in recognition of his considerable efforts to promote a positive public perception of mathematics and to explain the mathematician’s role in helping our understanding of our world. The prize recognises the important contribution made by the series Marcus made on measurement for the BBC: Precision: The Measure of All Things. As part of the award he will give the Thomson lecture at the Royal Society on October 23, entitled 'From Measurement to Mathematics.'