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 Amol Rajan, the 2026 ceremony featured presenters including Dame Angela McLean DBE HonFREng FRS and Harry Holt DSO OBE of Babcock, while HRH The Princess Royal delivered the Royal keynote address.
A number of awards and medals were presented at the ceremony including the Engineering Better Lives Award, a one-off prize to mark the Academy's 50th anniversary, and the evening culminated in the announcement of the 2026 MacRobert Award winner.
Meet the winners below.
The MacRobert Award
Congratulations to Oxford Nanopore Technologies who won the MacRobert Award for their breakthrough nanopore-sensing technology which reads DNA and RNA strands directly, in real time, from anywhere, without the need for complex imaging systems or controlled laboratory environments.
They were presented with a £50,000 prize and gold MacRobert Award medal.
The MacRobert Award-winning Oxford Nanopore Technologies team comprises:
- Dr Mark Bruce- Vice President, Sequencing Methods Research
- Dorothee van der Grinten - Senior Director, Chip Development
- Graham Hall - Vice President, Sequencing Development
- Dr Lakmal Jayasinghe - Chief Scientific Officer
- Ant Jones - Vice President, Engineering
- Dr Luke McNeill - Senior Director, Analytical Chemistry
- Dr Gordon Sanghera CBE - Founder
- Dr Nirmala Santiapillai - Vice President, Global Commercial Operations
- Mike Vella - Senior Director, Machine Learning
- Dr Jayne Wallace - Vice President, Nanopore Research and Protein Sequencing
- David Waterman - Senior Chief Engineer
- Dr James White - Senior Director, Technical Intelligence
MacRobert Award winners, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Receiving their award from HRH The Princess Royal at the Academy's annual awards dinner, 2026
The 2026 MacRobert Award finalists were:
- WeWALK in partnership with Imperial College London and Royal National Institute for Blind People who are closing the gap for visually impaired people through smart technology.
- Transmission Dynamics who are revolutionising rail safety standards with intelligent detection and prevention technologies.
- Oxford Nanopore Technologies who are expanding access to real-time genomic analysis.
Meet the 2026 winner and finalists
Supported by The MacRobert Trust and The Worshipful Company of Engineers, the MacRobert Award is the UK's longest-running and most prestigious national prize for engineering innovation.
Engineering Better Lives Award
Concrete Canvas co-founders, Will Crawford MBE and Peter Brewin MBE, were awarded the Engineering Better Lives award - a unique prize created to mark the Academy's 50th anniversary this year.
Co-founded in Pontyclun, South Wales, Concrete Canvas have developed a novel innovation that is changing the way critical water infrastructure is built and repaired around the world.
CCX®, the latest generation of their flexible concrete composite supplied on a roll or 'Concrete on a roll', was developed through 14 years of research and is now being used by governments, NGOs, and engineering giants to restore global waterways devastated by the impacts of climate change.
The award was presented by Dame Angela McLean DBE HonFREng FRS.
(L-R) Will Crawford MBE and Peter Brewin MBE, 2026 Engineering Better Lives Award winners
Rooke Award
The Smallpeice Trust's Arkwright Engineering Scholarship Team of Helen Cuthill, Lisa Foster and Georgina Hare received the 2026 Rooke Award in recognition of their enormous contribution to the public promotion of engineering.
The scholarship identifies talented students aged between 16 and 18 and provides them with immersive learning, expert mentorship and meaningful exposure to real engineering pathways. The team - Helen, Lisa and Georgina - have been pivotal in modernising and scaling the programme and have engaged with more than 1,300 schools nationwide.
The Smallpeice Arkwright Engineering Scholarship Team of Georgina Hare, Helen Cuthill and Lisa Foster (L-R), 2026 Rooke Award winners
Princess Royal Silver Medals
The Princess Royal Silver Medals were presented by HRH The Princess Royal to:
- Dr Ian Campbell, Co-Founder of Breathe Battery Technologies
- Dr Liucheng Guo, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer at TG0
- Professor Robert R Thomson FREng, Professor of Photonics at Heriot-Watt University
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.
Ian is working with global brands to deliver faster, more consistent charging and significantly extend battery life in both consumer electronics and premium electric vehicles. Liucheng is developing the first-of-its-kind 'AI for sensing' approach, embedding AI directly into materials to enable intuitive human-machine interaction. Lastly, Robert is revolutionising fibre optics through the invention of the integrated photonic lantern to drive breakthroughs across high-speed telecommunications to advanced medical imaging.
2026 Princess Royal Silver Medallists (L-R) Dr Ian Campbell, Dr Liucheng Guo and Professor Robert R Thomson FREng
Sir George Macfarlane Medal
Brogan MacDonald, Head of Sustainability in Building Structures at Ramboll UK, was awarded the Sir George Macfarlane Medal, recognising exceptional achievement in an early stage of her career.
She is being recognised for her work in shaping the company's strategy for sustainable change and driving delivery of low-carbon, resource-efficient outcomes across the built environment. Outside work, Brogan is also a strong advocate for encouraging women in STEM and inspiring the next generation.
Brogan MacDonald, 2026 Sir George Macfarlane Medal winner
RAEng Young Engineers of the Year
The five Young Engineers of the Year were:
- Brogan MacDonald, Head of Sustainability in Building Structures at Ramboll UK
- Laura Tuck, Research and Development Lead at The Washing Machine Project
- Dr Douglas Brion, Co-founder and CEO of Matta
- Dr Aakeen Parikh, Research Manager for the Vehicle Futures Hub, Imperial College London
- Alexia Williams MBE, Technical Lead at Rolls-Royce
The award recognises UK engineers in full-time higher education, research or industrial employment, who have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their career
From building sentient AI factories to designing washing machines for women and girls in undeserved communities, this year's winners are demonstrating how engineering can tackle some of society's most pressing challenges.
2026 Young Engineers of the Year (L-R) Laura Tuck, Brogan MacDonald, Alexia Williams MBE, Dr Aakeen Parikh and Dr Douglas Brion
Sponsors
The Academy is grateful to its sponsors for supporting the Awards Dinner.
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