Two British scientists who worked and conducted research at University of Birmingham have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

Professors David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz both worked at the Edgbaston institute during the 1970s before joining a ‘brain drain’ to the US.

The pair, along with Duncan Haldane, have been awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for their work and discoveries about exotic states of matter.

The prize was given in recognition of work that opened the door to a mysterious world in which matter can assume unusual states unknown in nature.

The trio used advanced mathematical modelling to study strange “phases” of matter such as superconductors, superfluids and thin magnetic films.

Their pioneering research began the hunt for new exotic materials that may have applications in electronics, magnetic devices and quantum computing.

The citation at the awards ceremony in Stockholm said the award was for “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”.

Prof Thouless, now based at the University of Washington in Seattle, will receive half the eight million krona (£729,000) prize money.

The rest will be shared between Prof Haldane, from Princeton University, and Prof Kosterlitz, from Brown University.

In 2014, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban who was treated in Birmingham before building a new life here, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

By receiving the prize at the age of 17, she is the youngest Nobel laureate.