The Academy's annual Awards Dinner is the most prestigious event in the Academy’s calendar and celebrates and recognises the very best in UK engineering.
Hosted by broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the 2024 ceremony featured presenters including Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence KCVO CB, on behalf of the Academy’s Royal Fellow, HRH The Princess Royal. Academy Fellow Professor Juergen Maier CBE FREng FRS delivered the keynote address.
A number of awards and medals were presented at the ceremony and the evening culminated in the announcement of the 2024 MacRobert Award winner.
Meet the winners below.
The MacRobert Award
Congratulations to Google DeepMind who were announced as the winners of the MacRobert Award for GraphCast, their groundbreaking AI weather forecasting technology.
They were presented with the MacRobert Award gold medal and a prize of £50,000 by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence KCVO CB, on behalf of the Academy’s Royal Fellow, HRH The Princess Royal.
The £50,000 prize and gold MacRobert Award medal were presented to the team comprising:
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Ferran Alet, Research Scientist
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Peter Battaglia, Research Scientist
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Meire Fortunato, Staff Research Scientist
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Remi Lam, Staff Research Scientist
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Shakir Mohamed, Director of Research
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Alexander Pritzel, Senior Staff Research Scientist
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Jacklynn Stott, Research Program Manager
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Alvaro Sanchez-Gonzalez, Staff Research Engineer
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Matthew Willson, Staff Research Engineer
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Peter Wirnsberger, Staff Research Scientist
The team from Google DeepMind with Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence KCVO CB. Image credit: Rob Lacey
The 2024 MacRobert Award finalists were:
- Sunamp who have pioneered the development of innovative heat batteries utilising phase change materials to revolutionise thermal energy storage.
- University of Oxford, AstraZeneca and partners who led a consortium of manufacturers, suppliers and other partners in the development of an innovative manufacturing process that was rolled out globally to supply over 3 billion doses of the ChAdOx1 Covid vaccine, saving over 6 million lives.
President's Medal
World-renowned safety expert Dame Judith Hackitt DBE FREng received the 2024 President's Medal in recognition of her enormous contribution to the Academy’s work, from ethical practice and safety culture to the promotion of engineering careers.
Dame Judith Hackitt is a British engineer and public servant who is recognised in the UK and internationally as a leader in chemical and systems engineering and engineering safety. Following the Grenfell Tower fire disaster, she led an Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety making a series of radical and demanding recommendations which have been implemented to address serious issues across the construction industry, clients, investors and government.
Princess Royal Silver Medals
The Princess Royal Silver Medals were presented by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence to:
- Dr Katerina Spranger, CEO and founder of Oxford Heartbeat Ltd
- Dr Daniel Jamieson, CEO of Biorelate Ltd
- Dr Orr Yarkoni, CEO of Colorfix
- Professor Jason Hallett, Professor of Sustainable Chemical Technology at Imperial College London
The Medal recognises outstanding and demonstrated personal contribution to UK engineering, which results in successful market exploitation, by an engineer with less than 22 years in full-time employment or equivalent.
Two of this year’s winners are using AI - to improve brain surgery and drug discovery - and two are making manufacturing more sustainable, through biological textile dyeing and sustainable substitutes for fossil fuels.
RAEng Engineers Trust Young Engineers of the Year and Sir George Macfarlane Medal
With the generous support of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, five engineers were presented with RAEng Engineers Trust Young Engineers of the Year certificates by Joshua Macabuag FREng. They were:
- Dr Alalea Kia, Advanced Research Fellow, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Royal Academy of Engineering Associate Research Fellow, Imperial College London
- Dr Ruben Doyle, CEO at Additive Instruments Ltd
- Dr Ishara Dharmasana, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Loughborough University
- Jamie Serjeant, Senior Design Engineer at Occuity
- Nikhila Ravi, Research Engineering Manager at Meta
The awards recognise their outstanding success at an early stage of their careers.
As overall winner, Dr Alalea Kia also received the Sir George Macfarlane Medal.
Major Project Award for Sustainability
National Grid were presented with the 2024 award by Dr Enass Abo-Hamed MBE for Viking Link, an electricity interconnector that enables the UK and Denmark to share renewable energy for the first time. It is a joint venture between the National Grid and Energinet.
At 475 miles (765 km), Viking Link is the longest land and subsea interconnector in the world and this record-breaking link will play a vital role in helping both countries to decarbonise and meet ambitious net zero targets.
The National Grid team includes:
- Matthew Burr, Project Manager
- David Monkhouse, Design Assurance Manager
- Erinn Sapsford, Operational Readiness Manager
Image credit: Siemens Energy
Rooke Award
The 2024 Rooke Award was awarded to Dr Shini Somara, a distinguished engineer, author and media presenter.
With a career spanning over two decades, Shini has significantly influenced the engineering landscape, particularly in inspiring young people and marginalised groups to pursue STEM careers. Her popular YouTube series, Crash Course Engineering and Crash Course Physics, have collectively garnered nearly 60 million views, making complex engineering concepts accessible and engaging to a global audience. These series have been incorporated into educational syllabi, amplifying their impact.
The award was presented by Ruth Amos, 2023 Rooke Award winner.
Sponsors
The Academy is grateful to its sponsors for supporting the Awards Dinner.
