In Memoriam: Professor Peter Littlewood FRS (1955-2026)

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Professor Peter Littlewood FRS on 15 June, aged 71. Peter was the Faraday Institution’s inaugural Executive Chair of the Board of Trustees, serving from September 2017 to December 2024. Our deepest thoughts are with his family, friends and the many communities he inspired through his remarkable career.

Peter was a driving force and a visionary behind the creation of the Faraday Institution. He saw the need for a completely new kind of research organisation, one that would bring together academic scientists and industrial partners on a mission of discovery, invention and application for the electrification of the UK and beyond. With secured government funding and, alongside a small team, he helped to establish the Faraday Institution as an independent organisation with robust governance, assembled its inaugural team, and set it on the path to becoming internationally recognised for excellence in battery research.

Peter’s career spanned five decades, defined by his intellectual depth and enormous generosity. After earning his BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge, he spent nearly two decades at Bell Laboratories, where he led the theoretical physics research group. He returned to Cambridge in 1997, eventually becoming Head of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Department of Physics – one of the most distinguished positions in world physics. He then joined the University of Chicago and served as Director of Argonne National Laboratory until 2017, returning to the University full-time as Professor of Physics and, later, as Chair of the Physics Department.

Peter was internationally recognised for his research across superconductivity, semiconductor optics, magnetic materials, strongly correlated electronic systems, and, increasingly in later years, applications of materials for energy and sustainability. He held six patents, published more than 250 scientific articles and provided more than 300 invited talks at conferences, universities and laboratories. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2025 he was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal – Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize.

Besides the Faraday Institution, he served on the advisory boards of several other institutes, the Carnegie Institute for Science, the Simons Foundation, the Paul Scherer Institute and the Max Planck Institute.

To those of us at the Faraday Institution, Peter was far more than a Chair. He was a trusted advisor to three Chief Executives and the headquarters team, offering wise counsel and kind critique. He shared his knowledge of the energy landscape with characteristic generosity, asking the right questions and keeping the Faraday’s mission at heart. He was endlessly supportive, and deeply proud of what the Faraday Institution’s community has accomplished. We will miss his friendship.

Image: Professor Peter Littlewood FRS. Courtesy of the Argonne National Laboratory.

Posted on June 22, 2026