Premium awards
Background information
Click on the links below to for further details about each of the premiums:
- Ayrton Premium
- Blumlein-Browne-Willans Premium
- Clarke-Griffiths Memorial Premium
- Coales Premium
- Crompton Premium
- Duddell Premium
- Sebastian Z de Ferranti Premium
- Ambrose Fleming Premium
- Hartree Premium
- Heaviside Premium
- Lord Hirst Premium
- John Hopkinson Premium
- IERE Benefactors Premium
- Kelvin Premium
- Oliver Lodge Premium
- Marconi Premium
- Mather Premium
- Maxwell Premium
- Mountbatten Premium
- Power Engineering Journal Premium
- A H Reeve Premium
- J D Scaife Premium
- Snell Premium
- Swan Premium
- J Langham Thompson Premium
- J J Thomson Premium
- F C Williams Premium
- Dr V K Zworykin Premium
Ayrton Premium
Established after changes to premiums made in 1911, for papers on practical applications of electricity.
Ayrton, W E (1847-1908)
An outstanding teacher of electrical subjects, often using apparatus he had made himself. Appointed the first Professor of Natural Philosophy and Telegraphy at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo in 1873. He became Professor of Electrical Engineering at Finsbury Technical College in 1879 and in 1884 became Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Central Technical College, eventually becoming Dean in 1904. In Tokyo, Ayrton, with John Perry, worked on dialectic constants of gases; viscosities of dialectics and at Finsbury they invented many electrical measuring instruments, including a spiral-spring ammeter and wattmeter. They also worked on railway electrification and produced a dynometer, and in 1882 the first electric tricycle. He was President of the IET (then IEE) in 1892.
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Blumlein-Browne-Willans Premium
Established in 1954. Awarded annually, for papers on the science and art of television or pulse and wideband techniques.
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Clarke-Griffiths Memorial Premium
Established 1996 after Dr John Clark of RSRE Malvern and Professor Roy Griffiths of Loughborough university.
Dr Clarke made important contributions to the areas of airborne AEW radar and clutter modelling. At Loughborough, Professor Griffiths led an and internationally recognised group in sonar signal processing.
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Coales Premium
Established in 2000 as a Control Premium.
Coales, John Flavell 1907 - 1999
Educated at Sydney Sussex College Cambridge. From 1928 until the outbreak of war he worked for the Admiralty at HM Signal School Portsmouth on radio direction finding and then became head of a research team developing transmission and reception of decimetre radio waves with application to radar. In 1946 founded the research laboratories of Elliot Brothers (London) Ltd and made important contributions in the areas of military radar, digital computers and industrial instrumentation. In 1953 returned to Cambridge to form a group for postgraduate teaching and research in the area of advanced automatic control systems. IET (then IEE) President 1971/1972 and appointed CBE in 1976.
Crompton Premium
Established in 1942 as an Installations Section premium.
Crompton, Col. R.E.B
Pioneer of early electrical engineering (especially arc-lighting) and of early automobile development. Founder of Crompton & Co. IET (then IEE) President 1895. Awarded the Faraday Medal in 1926.
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Duddell Premium
Established in 1920 as a Wireless Section premium.
Duddell, William (1872-1917)
His early work related to the wave-forms of alternating currents and alternate-current arc. Following upon the the achievements of Blondel, he developed the oscillograph. He then investigated the 'singing arc' leading to the high frequency arc generator perfected by Poulsen. He built an alternator giving 120,000 cycles per second and devised a galvanometer of great sensitiveness. He was President of the IET (then IEE) in 1913 and a trustee of the Benevolent Fund.
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Sebastian Z de Ferranti Premium
Established in 1935 as a Transmission section premium.
de Ferranti, Sebastian Ziani 1864-1930
Born in Liverpool.Educated in St.Augustine's College Ramsgate. Joined evening classes at University College London. Early pioneer of the generation and transmission of electricity at high voltages; designed and built Deptford Power Station in 1888 then the world's largest. Founded the Ferranti Company. IET (then IEE) President 1910.
Ambrose Fleming Premium
Established in 1941 as a wireless section premium.
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Hartree Premium
Established as a Control and Automation premium in 1966.
Hartree, Douglas Rayner (1897-1958)
Physicist. Worked on numerical analysis and radio.
Heaviside Premium
Established in 1950 as part of the Heaviside centenary celebrations for the best paper of a detailed mathematical nature accepted by the Institution.
Heaviside, Oliver (1850-1925)
Physicist. Famous for his deduction of the existence of the "Kenelly-Heaviside layer". A layer in the ionosphere which reflects radio waves. Faraday medallist 1924.
Lord Hirst Premium
Hirst, Hugo - 1st Baron Hirst of Witton (1863-1943)
Born in Munich in 1863, he came to Britain in 1870. His life's work was the creation of the General Electric Co. The late Gustav Byng founded this company, (first called the General Apparatus Co.) and Hugo Hirst joined him in 1886. The company sold all the electrical appliances then available. He became Managing Director of the Company in 1900 and the Chairman in 1910. Lord Hirst was one of the first to realise the importance of research in industry and GEC's research laboratories are among the leading industrial laboratories of the world. He joined the Institution in 1888 as an Associate and was elected a member in 1898; he became an Honorary member in 1935. He served on the Council for 9 years and played a leading part in creating the Benevolent Fund. Also a notable President of the F B I, Economic advisor to the Cabinet Research Committee, a member of the Advisory Committee to the Board of Trade and the Government Commission to Australia in 1928. He was created a Baronet in 1925 and Peer of the Realm in 1934.
John Hopkinson Premium
Established when changes made to Premiums in 1911, for papers on the design and construction of electric machinery.
Hopkinson, John (1849-1898)
Outstanding consulting engineer and expert witness. Worked on electromagnetic occurrences in dynamos and the theory of dielectrics. IET (then IEE) President in 1890 and 1896.
IERE Benefactors Premium
Established after the IERE merger with a donation from for the purpose of continuing the premiums below:
Sir Henry Jackson (est. 1973: history of radio/electronics)
Eric Zeplar (est.1973: education of electronic and radio engineers)
Paul Adorian (Endowment from Associated Rediffusion Ltd 1959: communication or broadcasting engineering)
P Perring Thoms (endowment from Radio Rentals1967: in memory of former chairman).
Kelvin Premium
Established when changes to premiums made in 1911, for papers on scientific research.
Kelvin, Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron of Largs (1824-1907)
Mathematician and physicist. Famous for his work on the first Atlantic Telegraph and his numerous inventions. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow 1846-1899. Also promoted the need for a universally accepted system of measurement. Kelvin also introduced the idea of an 'absolute zero' in temperature, an achievement recognised in 'Kelvin' units of temperature.
FRS and President of the Royal Society 1890-4, knighted 1866, Peerage 1892, President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 1874, President of the IET (then IEE) 1889 and 1907.
Oliver Lodge Premium
Established as an Electronics Division premium in 1963 after changes to premium structure.
Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph (1851-1937)
Physicist. One of the first to demonstrate wireless telegraphy. Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Liverpool. Knighted 1902. Faraday medallist 1932.
Marconi Premium
Established as an Electronics Premium in 1963.
Marconi, Marchese Gugliemo (1974-1937)
Radio pioneer. The first person to establish a permanent radio link from the Isle of Wight to the mainland. Also the first person to demonstrated wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic in 1901. Founded the Marconi company. Received the Nobel Prize for Physics 1909.
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Mather Premium
Established as a Measurement Section Premium in 1943.
Mather, Thomas 1856 - 1937
Professor of Electrical Engineering at Imperial College. Co-author, with W.E. Ayrton, of 'Practical Electricity', published in 1911.
Maxwell Premium
Maxwell, James Clerk (1831-1879)
Established in 1968.
Physicist. Founded the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. Famous for his equations (Maxwell's equations), which form mathematical proofs of electromagnetic action and the propagation of light. also worked on colour and produced the first colour photograph in 1861.
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Mountbatten Premium
Originally an IERE Premium (established 1979)
Mountbatten, Louis Earl of Mountbatten of Burma
Naval officer. Son of Prince Louis of Battenburg and Princess Victoria of Hesse (Queen Victoria's granddaughter). Mountbatten joined the Royal Navy in 1913 and served in a variety of posts, specialising in communications. He was a senior wireless instructor at HM Signal School, Portsmouth (1929-31) and Fleet Wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet 1931-33. After considerable success as a commander in World War II, Mountbatten was made Viceroy of India in 1947. He was also Governor-General of the Dominion of India 1947-48.
Earl Mountbatten was killed in 1979 by an IRA bomb on his yacht.
Power Engineering Journal Premium
Established 1990. Awarded Annually for papers in the above journal. First awarded to F R L Creek.
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A H Reeve Premium
Established in 1991 to commemorate the work of Alec Harvey Reeves on pulse-code modulation, the the transmission method designed to overcome problems of noise, distortion and cross-talkby substituting digital code signals for analogue, which was granted a patent in 1939.
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J D Scaife Premium
Scaife, J D
A past President (1923-1924) of the Institution of Production Engineers which merged with the IET (then IEE) in 1991.
Snell Premium
Established in 1943 as a Transmission Section premium.
Snell, Sir John Francis Cleverton (1869-1938)
He was involved in the post -war planning committee of electrical engineering . Appointed Chairman of the Electricity Commission in 1919. Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1926- 1931. President of the IET (then IEE) in 1914. He was elected an Honorary Member (now Honorary Fellow) of the IET (then IEE) in 1936 and was awarded the Faraday Medal in 1938.
Swan Premium
Established in 1943 as an Installations Section premium.
Swan, Sir Joseph W (1828-1914)
Inventor of the incandescent filament lamp (probably before Edison perfected his incandescent lamp) and the miner's electric safety lamp. Founded the Swan company which in 1883 merged to form the Ediswan Company. IET (then IEE) President 1898.
J Langham Thompson Premium
Originally an IERE Premium (established 1962 with an endowment from J L Thompson).
Thompson, John Langham (1906-2000)
John Langham Thompson played major roles in the development of the British Electronics industry and in establishing the Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers as the professional focus for electronic engineers in Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. He became the IERE's second charter President in 1963 (Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma was the first).
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J J Thomson Premium
Established in 1963 as an Electronics Premium
Thomson, Sir Joseph John (1856 - 1940)
Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge. He discovered the electron in 1897 and thus laid the foundations for modern electronics. In the first few years of the twentieth century much of Thomson's time was taken up running the Cavendish Laboratory, but he continued his research, particularly in the field of gas discharges. His work on 'positive rays' led to the discovery of isotopes and Aston's mass spectrometer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906 and was knighted in 1908.
During the First World War Thomson served on the Board of Invention and Research, set up by Arthur Balfour in 1915 to provide scientific and technical assistance to the Navy. After the war he became master of Trinity, a post he held until his death in 1940.
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F C Williams Premium
Established in 1990.
Williams, Sir Frederic Calland (1911-1977)
Electrical Engineer. Invented the Williams storage cathode-ray tube, used in the Manchester MK1 digital computer. Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the University of Manchester, Electro technical Laboratory.
Dr V K Zworykin Premium
Originally an IERE Premium. Established in 1960 with an endowment from J L Thompson (past president of the IERE). Awarded annually for papers published by the IET (then IEE) on medical and biological electronics.
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