Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
| The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Awarded for | Ground-breaking innovation in engineering which has been of global benefit to humanity. |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Presented by | The Queen Elizabeth Prize Foundation |
| First awarded | 2013 |
| Official website |
qeprize |
The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, also known as the QEPrize, is a global engineering prize that rewards and celebrates the engineers responsible for a ground-breaking innovation in engineering that has been of global benefit to humanity. The £1 million Prize is awarded in the name of Queen Elizabeth II.[1]
The prize was officially launched in November 2011 by a cross-party line up of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband. The 2015 prize was awarded to Robert Langer, for his work in controlled-release large molecule drug delivery.
The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation
The objective of the Queen Elizabeth Prize is to raise the public profile of engineering, and to inspire young people and engage them in engineering. It is run by a charitable company, limited by guarantee, called the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. The Foundation is chaired by Lord Browne of Madingley whose fellow trustees are:
Sir Mark Walport, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, is an adviser to the Foundation.
The day-to-day running of the Prize is carried out by a team at the Royal Academy of Engineering.[2]
Selection process
The prize rewards an outstanding engineering-led advance that has produced tangible and widespread public benefit. This is judged on broad criteria, that includes the cultural impacts of the engineering. Nominations are encouraged from the public, from engineering and science academies, universities, research organisations and companies around the world. The only restriction is that self-nomination is not permitted, and that the prize not be awarded posthumously.[2]
The judging panel works from the information provided in the nomination, comments from referees and any additional information required in order to establish which nomination most fully meets the prize criteria. The panel uses the following criteria to select the winning nominations:
- What is it that this person has done (or up to three people have done) that is a ground-breaking innovation in engineering?
- In what way has this innovation been of global benefit to humanity?
- Is there anyone else who might claim to have had a pivotal role in this development?
2013 award
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 The digital revolution ... has transformed the world, and underlying the digital revolution are two key technologies, the internet and the world-wide web., Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, 2013 |
The inaugural prize was awarded to a team of five engineers who created the Internet and the World Wide Web. The announcement was made by Lord Browne of Madingley in the presence of Princess Anne at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 18 March 2013. The winners of the 2013 prize were:
- Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and Louis Pouzin for their contributions to the protocols that make up the fundamental architecture of the Internet,
- Tim Berners-Lee for the creation the World Wide Web, and
- Marc Andreessen for the Mosaic web browser.[3][4]
On Tuesday 25 June 2013 the winners received their award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in front of an audience that included the three leaders of the UK’s main political parties, Queen Elizabeth Prize judges and a number of young engineers at Buckingham Palace. On the same day, the Lord Mayor hosted a lunch at the Guildhall in honour of the winners attended by Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.
Judging panel
The judging panel for the 2013 prize comprised:[2]
- Professor Frances Arnold
- Lord Alec Broers FREng HonFMedSci FRS (Chair)
- Professor Brian Cox OBE FInstP
- Madam Deng Nan
- Professor Lynn Gladden CBE FREng FRS
- Diane Greene
- Professor John L. Hennessy
- Professor Reinhard Hüttl
- Professor Calestous Juma HonFREng FRS
- Professor Hiroshi Komiyama
- Dr. Dan Mote
- Narayana Murthy
- Dr. Nathan Myhrvold
- Professor Choon Fong Shih
- Paul Westbury FREng
2015 award
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|
Hundreds of millions of people a year across the world benefit from the technologies that rest on the work of Robert Langer., Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering 2015 |
The 2015 prize was awarded to Robert Langer, for his work in controlled-release large molecule drug delivery.[5][6] The announcement was made by Lord Browne of Madingley in the presence of HRH The Duke of York at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 3 February 2015. Dr. Langer, who made a speech at the announcement, said he was “proud and privileged for winning the biggest engineering prize in the world”.
Judging panel
The judging panel for the 2015 prize comprises:
- Professor Frances Arnold
- Lord Alec Broers FREng HonFMedSci FRS (Chair)
- Professor Brian Cox OBE FInstP
- Professor Lynn Gladden CBE FREng FRS
- Professor John Hennessy
- Professor Reinhard Hüttl
- Professor Calestous Juma HonFREng FRS
- Professor Hiroshi Komiyama
- Dr. Dan Mote
- Narayana Murthy
- Professor Choon Fong Shih
- Sir Christopher Snowden FREng FRS (Chair Elect)
- Professor Viola Vogel
- Paul Westbury FREng
Create the Trophy Competition, 2013
The 2013 winners each received a trophy designed by 17-year-old Jennifer Leggett, who won a national competition that called for students to come up with a design capturing the essence of modern engineering. Her design was selected from a shortlist by a prestigious judging panel that included Science Museum director and Chair of judges, Ian Blatchford; architect, Dame Zaha Hadid; Director of the Tate, Sir Nicholas Serota; Design Museum director, Deyan Sudjic; and Engineer, Yewande Akinola.
Jennifer Leggett's tree-like trophy design symbolises the growth of engineering and represents the way in which all areas of engineering are interlinked. After winning the competition Jennifer Leggett was invited to spend the day with designer Thomas Heatherwick before the design was finalised. The 2013 trophy has been constructed out of a 3D printed resin that has been dipped in Nickel alloy. The tree-like trophy has some polished and some brushed modules while the base is sintered aluminium.
Create the Trophy Competition, 2015
The winner of the 2015 Create the Trophy competition was Euan Fairholm, mechanical engineering student at The University of Glasgow. His design, "The Golden Crown", will be developed into a final form and presented to the winner of the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
Judges
- Ian Blatchford (Chairman), Director of the Science Museum
- Roma Agrawal, Structural Engineer at WSP and M&S Leading Lady
- Mark Miodownik, Director of the Institute of Making, UCL
- David Rowan, Editor-in-Chief, Wired UK
- Sir John Sorrell, Chairman, University of the Arts, London
- Jenniffer Leggett, winner of the 2013 QEPrize Create the Trophy competition
- British public, through a Facebook poll
References
- ↑ "Prize rules and conditions". QEPrize.org. The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- 1 2 3 "QEPrize home page". The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ↑ "Internet and Web pioneers win the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering" (PDF) (Press release). Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ↑ Harrington, Ben (18 March 2013). "Internet team scoops Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering award for innovators". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ↑ Shukman, David (3 February 2015). "Drug-delivery pioneer wins £1m engineering prize". BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
- ↑ "QEPrize Winner 2015 - Robert Langer". Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
External links
- The Queen Elizabeth Prize Website
- The Queen Elizabeth Prize Twitter Account
- The Queen Elizabeth Prize Facebook Account