Professor Sir Richard is the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge and has a vast wealth of experience both within academia and the world of business.

As a pioneer of physics, materials science and engineering of semiconductor devices made with carbon-based semiconducting polymer, he has shown that polymers such as poly(phenylene vinylene) can be processed to form high-performing semiconductor devices. His research group were the first to demonstrate using polymers in clean operation of field-effect transistors (1988) and light-emitting diodes (1990). These advances revealed that the semiconductor properties of this broad class of materials are unexpectedly clean, so that semiconductor devices can both reveal their novel semiconductor physics, including their operation in efficient photovoltaic diodes (1995), optically-pumped lasing (1996), directly-printed polymer transistor circuits (2000) and light-emitting transistors (2006).

This work has revolutionised the understanding of the electronic properties of polymeric semiconductors, which are now recognised to be very suitable for use in semiconductor devices. It has also made possible new applications for semiconductors, particularly for solid-state light-emitting displays using polymer light-emitting diodes. The impact of this technology may prove to be of immense significance: the fabrication of semiconductor devices and circuits by direct printing is radically different from the traditional patterning and process technologies of inorganic semiconductors, and will allow directly-printed semiconductor circuits to be manufactured at much reduced cost.

He has also been directly involved in the process of commercialisation of this technology, forming two spin-out companies from the University of Cambridge. Cambridge Display Technology Ltd (1992) was developed to advance polymer LED technology for displays, grew to more than 100 employees, was taken public on the NASDAQ exchange and later fully acquired by Sumitomo Chemical Company, within which it provides a key role in the delivery of polymer LED technology. Plastic Logic Ltd (2000) was created to develop printed transistor circuit technology and has focused on the manufacture of flexible transistor arrays on plastic substrates suitable for use as active matrix backplanes for e-paper displays. The company has a full manufacturing facility in Dresden (Germany) and has developed A4-size e-paper displays ready for manufacture. More recently, he has been developing organic solar cell technology for manufacture, and with support from the Carbon Trust has co-founded Eight-19 Ltd (2010) for this purpose.