Now entering its 40th year in business, materials characterization specialist Malvern Instruments is celebrating winning its fifth Queen's Award, a significant achievement that reflects the drive and commitment of everyone in this high-tech company. Details of the award were announced on the occasion of Her Majesty The Queen's birthday on April 21, 2010. Malvern is to receive the 2010 Queen's Award for Enterprise in the category Innovation, in recognition of the company's continuous innovation and development of its award-winning Zetasizer Nano range of particle characterization systems.

Malvern's Managing Director Paul Walker says that the award is a huge tribute to the whole company. "I am immensely pleased for the entire Malvern Instruments team," he says. "Over the years we have nurtured a culture of enterprise, initiative and innovation, encouraging both creativity and technical excellence, where everything we do is focused on meeting the needs of our customers. This extends beyond the vital technical product innovation, and everyone has a part to play in delivering the whole product – from administration, sales, training, technical service and high-level applications support, right through to ensuring round-the-clock global availability of information across the web. Innovation does not take place in isolation and I want to thank everyone at Malvern, in the UK and all around the world, for their contribution to making this award possible."

The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's most prestigious awards for business performance. Malvern has previously received: The Queen's Award for Technology in 1977; The Queen's Award for Export in 1981; The Queen's Award for Export and Technology in 1988; and The Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2006.

The Zetasizer Nano series is a family of analytical instruments that measure a number of the physical characteristics of nanoparticles and proteins, such as particle size, zeta potential and molecular weight, easily and quickly. Designed to meet demanding market requirements for extensive functionality while offering true ease of use, the Zetasizer Nano has been a commercial success from the outset, a key factor being the simplicity of the user interaction required to generate, understand and apply sophisticated measurement data. Launched in 2003, the Zetasizer Nano was the culmination of the development of earlier highly complex systems. Ongoing work has added new software and accessories that have brought additional functionality and considerably extended the system's applications.

Malvern Instruments is a market leader in measuring performance controlling material properties. These include particle size, particle shape, zeta potential, molecular weight, size and conformation, rheological properties and chemical distribution. Malvern delivers the systems, support and expertise that ensure the analytical rigour and productivity needed to drive research, development and manufacturing. The company is part of Spectris plc.