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Awards and prizes index

Further information and lists of previous winners of the Faraday Medal, Mountbatten Medal, A F Harvey Research Prize and Churchill Medal are available below.

The Churchill Medallists

Originally created by the Society of Engineers, the Churchill Medal today recognises a team or individual for an outstanding achievement and contribution in support of military operations.

The Churchill Medal was the Premier award of the Society of Engineers.

Sir Winston Churchill gave approval for the title of the medal in November 1946 when he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Engineers and the first award was made in 1952.

Originally the medal was awarded to an individual once in alternate even years in respect of an important contribution to contemporary engineering, an original engineering project or development solely conceived by the nominee and executed under their supervision, or a project or development to which the nominee had made the major engineering contribution.

In 2005 the Society of Engineers was absorbed by the Institution of Incorporated Engineers, now the IET. The Churchill Medal continues to be awarded today as The Joint Professional Engineering Institutions Churchill Medal and recognizes a team or individual for outstanding achievements and contributions to engineering and technical advancement in support of military operations.

Previous recipients

2024/2025

Signaller Shaun Acar

2023/2024

HMS Vanguard Reactor Repair Support Team

2022/2023

HMS Audacious and C-Squadron DTXG Main Vent Repair Team, Submarine Service and Diving and Threat Exploitation Group, The Royal Navy 

2021/2022

Warrant Officer First Class (Foreman of the Signals) Tom Wilson

2020/2021

Captain Fionidi Parker REME and Captain Ian Taylor REME

2019/2020

British Army Training Unit Suffield Workshop (BATUS) - Electronic Support Group

2018/2019

The Forward Mechanical Section of HMS ASTUTE

2017/2018

Chief Technician Peter Wakefield RAF

2016/2017

Royal Navy Submarine Mechanical Specialists

2015/2016

Corporal Bernard Donoghue RAF

2014/2015

UK/US Royal Signals Infantry Team

2013/2014

Sergeant Kevin Cuthbert REME

2012/2013

Captain Pip Lines REME

2011/2012

Sgt Simon Nurse RSignals

2010/2011

Flt Lt David Ramsey RAF

2004

Neil Jenkins

1994

Professor Alan Wells

1990

Sir John Fox

1988

Ralph Tony Sarich

1986

Charles Thomas Elliott

1984

Professor William Alexander Gambling

1982

Harold John Musgrove

1980

No award made

1978

Sir John Rix

1976

Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield

1974

Frank Reginald Farmer

1972

Francis Thomas Bacon

1970

Sir Gilbert Roberts

1968

Sir Stanley George Hooker

1966

Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell

1964

Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell

1962

Sir Geoffrey de Havilland

1960

Ernest Walter Hives, first Baron Hives

1958

Sir John Douglas Cockroft

1956

Christopher Hinton, Baron Hinton of Bankside

1954

Sir William Wallace

1952

Sir Frank Whittle

The Faraday Medallists

The Faraday Medal of the IET is a bronze medal established to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the first Ordinary Meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers.

The medal is awarded by the IET not more frequently than once a year (either for notable scientific or industrial achievement in engineering or for conspicuous service rendered to the advancement of science, engineering and technology) without restriction as regards nationality, country of residence or membership of the Institution.

Names and post-nominal letters appear below as recorded in the Roll of Honorary Fellows and Faraday Medallists, held in the IET Archives.

Previous recipients

2025

Professor Martin A Green AM FRS FAA FTS MNAE

2024

No award

2023

Professor Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj

2022

Professor Chad A Mirkin PhD

2021

John E E Fleming

2020

Professor Bashir Mohammad Ali Al-Hashimi CBE FREng

2019

Professor Sir Peter Knight FRS

2018

No award

2017

Dr Bjarne Stroustrup

2016

Dr Andrew Harter FREng

2015

Professor Kees Schouhamer Immink FIEEE FAES FSMPTE

2014

Regius Professor Christofer Toumazou FRS FREng FMedSci

2013

Professor Sir Michael Pepper

2012

Dr Leonardo Chiariglione

2011

Professor Donald E Knuth

2010

Professor Donal Bradley CBE FRS

2009

Sir Martin Sweeting OBE FREng FRS

2008

Professor J Kittler FREng

2007

Professor S B Furber FRS FREng

2006

Professor J V McCanny CBE FREng FRS FIAE

2005

Mr Azim H Premji

2004

Professor P M Grant FREng FRSE BSc PhD

2003

Professor Richard H Friend FRS FREng

2002

Sir Robin K Saxby BEng

2001

Professor C J Harris FREng

2000

Professor Michael Brady FREng MSc PhD FRS FIEE

1999

Professor P A McKeown OBE DSc FEng FIEE

1998

Professor R M Needham FRS FEng

1997

Professor J E Midwinter OBE BSc PhD FRS FEng

1996

S C Miller CBE BSc FEng

1995

Professor J D Rhodes OBE PhD DEng FRS FEng

1994

Dr J Parnaby CBE BSc PhD DEng DSc FEng

1993

Professor A G J MacFarlane CBE FRS FEng FRSE

1992

L Solymar MA PhD

1991

Dr A W Rudge OBE FEng

1990

Professor P J Lawrenson DSc FRS FEng

1989

Professor Charles K Kao BSc(Eng) PhD

1988

C Hilsum BSc PhD FEng FIEE FRS

1987

Professor D E N Davies CBE DSc FEng FRS

1986

Professor E D R Shearman BSc(Eng) FEng

1985

Professor C A R Hoare MA HonDSc FRS

1984

Professor A L Cullen OBE DSc(Eng) FEng FRS

1983

Professor W A Gambling DSc PhD FEng

1982

Professor B D Josephson MA PhD FRS

1981

Professor M V Wilkes MA PhD FRS

1980

Professor E A Ash PhD DSc FRS

1979

Robert N Noyce

1978

E Friedlander DrIng

1977

J B Adams CMG MA HonDSc FRS

1976

T O Paine AB MS PhD

1975

Professor John M Meek CBE DEng DSc

1974

G Millington MA BSc

1973

Professor Sir Nevill Mott MA FRS

1972

Professor F C Williams CBE DSc DPhil CEng FRS

1971

Professor Sir Martin Ryle MA CEng FRS

1970

Professor C W Oatley OBE MA MSc CEng FRS

1969

Dr Phillip Sporn EE

1968

Leslie Herbert Bedford CBE MA BSc(Eng)

1967

Professor Harold Everard M Barlow PhD BSc(Eng) FRS

1966

J A Ratcliffe CB CBE MA FRS

1965

Vladimir K Zworykin EE PhD DSc

1964

Joseph Ronald Mortlock BSc(Eng) PhD

1963

Monsieur Pierre M J Ailleret Commander de la Legion d’Honneur

1962

Sir Basil Ferdinand Jamieson Schonland CBE MA PhD FRS

1961

Dr Julius A Stratton ScD DEng

1960

Sir George Paget Thomson DSc FRS

1959

Signor Luigi Emmannueli

1958

Sir Gordon Radley KCB CBE PhD(Eng)

1957

Dr Waldemar Borgquist

1956

Emeritus Professor George William O Howe DSc LLD

1955

Sir John Cockcroft KCB CBE MA MScTech PhD FRS

1954

Isaac Shoenberg

1953

Colonel Sir A Stanley Angwin KBE DSO MC TD BSc(Eng)

1952

Professor Ernest Orlando Lawrence AM PhD

1951

Thomas Lydwell Eckersley BA BSc PhD FRS

1950

Sir James Chadwick MSc PhD FRS

1949

Charles Samuel Franklin CBE

1948

Professor Marcus Lawrence Elwin Oliphant FRS

1947

Sir Leonard Pearce CBE DSc

1946

Sir Edward Victor Appleton GBE KCB MA DSc LLD FRS

1945

Sir Clifford Copland Paterson OBE DSc FRS

1944

Irving Langmuir LLD DSc PhD

1943

Sir Archibald Page

1942

Dr Peter Kapitza FRS

1941

Sir Arthur Percy M Fleming CBE DEng

1940

Alexander Russell MA DSc LLD FRS

1939

W D Coolidge BS PhD

1938

Sir John F C Snell GBE

1937

Professor Andre Blondel

1936

Sir William Henry Bragg OM KBE MA DSc FRS

1935

Frank Baldwin Jewett PhD

1934

Sir Frank E Smith GCB GBE DSc FRS

1933

No award

1932

Sir Oliver Lodge DSc FRS

1931

Charles H Merz DSc

1930

The Rt Hon Lord Rutherford of Nelson

1929

Guido Semenza

1928

Professor John Ambrose Fleming MA DSc FRS

1927

Elihu Thomson DSc

1926

Colonel Rookes Evelyn B Crompton CB FRS

1925

Sir Joseph John Thomson OM MA FRS

1924

Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti DSc FRS

1923

The Hon Sir Charles Algernon Parsons OM KCB FRS

1922

Oliver Heaviside FRS

IET A F Harvey Research Prize

First awarded in 2011 in remembrance of the engineer Arthur Frank Harvey, this international prize is awarded annually.

The prize money which accompanies the award is to be used for the furtherance of scientific research in the fields of medical, microwave, laser or radar engineering, on a rotating basis.

Following Harvey's death, a trust was set up during his lifetime and the residue of his estate was left as a legacy to the IET.

The terms of the Trust specified that this money was to be used to further scientific research into the fields of medical, microwave, radar or laser engineering.

The Board of Trustees of the IET agreed that the available funds would be used to offer an annual research prize in one of these research fields each year, covering them all over a three-year cycle. The first award of the IET A F Harvey Research Prize was made in 2011.

A F Harvey (1910 - 2006)

Born in South Wales, Arthur Frank Harvey gained a BSc in Electrical Engineering subjects and was also awarded the Page Gold Medal for the best student in the Engineering Department at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff.

In 1930 Harvey was awarded a prestigious three-year Industrial Bursary from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. During this time, he worked as an engineering apprentice at the South Wales Power Company and then took up a college apprenticeship with Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company Ltd, Manchester.

After his bursary ended in 1934, he worked as a Technical Assistant at Johnson and Phillips Ltd in Charlton, London, and then from 1935-to 38 he worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough.

Harvey was admitted to the degree of D.Phil in April 1940 at Jesus College, University of Oxford. During this time he began work on high-frequency thermionic tubes, later moving to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. He continued to work on radar and microwave applications, including the magnetron, during and after the Second World War.

In 1939 Harvey joined the Ministry of Supply as a Scientific Officer, becoming Senior Scientific Officer in 1946 and Principal Scientific Officer in 1950. In 1960 Harvey won the IEEE Microwave Prize for his paper on “Periodic and guiding structures at microwave frequencies". By the 1980s Harvey had moved to work for the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern. During this period his work included research and development on millimetre wavelengths, ferrite devices, quantum electronics and coherent-light techniques.

Harvey wrote several papers and published two books on microwaves and lasers.

Previous recipients

2024

Professor Changzhi Li

 

2023

Professor Rachel McKendry

 

2022

John C. Travers

John C. Travers is a Professor of Physics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and director of the Laboratory of Ultrafast Physics and Optics.

2021

Professor Mona Jarrahi 

Professor Mona Jarrahi is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Director of the Terahertz Electronics Laboratory.

2020

Professor Gregoire Courtine

Professor Gregoire Courtine was awarded the IET A F Harvey Prize in 2020 in recognition of his work in electrical spinal cord stimulation to modulate the circuits that produce movement.

Combined with rehabilitative training, these targeted neuromodulation strategies restored walking and improved neurological recovery in people with spinal cord injury, but the same strategy may also enable the recovery of arm and hand movements.

The prize funding will allow him to study this possibility.

2019

Professor Jelena Vuckovic

Professor Jelena Vuckovic is awarded the IET A F Harvey Engineering Research Prize 2019 in recognition of her outstanding contributions to research in the field of lasers and optoelectronics, specifically ultralow threshold photonic crystal lasers and attojoule optoelectronics, on-chip quantum photonics, and development of photonics inverse design method.

2018

Professor Mário G. Silveirinha

In recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of radar and microwave engineering, specifically in the electrodynamics of metamaterials and its applications to microwave components and devices.

2017

Professor Rui L. Reis

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in medical engineering, specifically for contributions to bioengineering, biomedical engineering, tissue engineering and biomaterials, namely on the development of unique natural origin biomimetic scaffolds combined with specific adult stem cells for the regeneration of different human tissues.

2016

Dr Arseniy Kuznetsov

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in the field of Lasers and Optoelectronics, as well as pioneering research on dielectric nanoantennas, a new branch of nanophotonics, which studies the behaviour and use of light in nanoscale projects.

2015

Professor Yang Hao

In recognition of his research achievements in microwaves, antennas and, in particular, metamaterial antenna innovations drawing inspiration from transformation optics.

2014

Professor Eleanor Stride

In recognition of her outstanding contributions to research in the field of medical engineering, specifically in biomedical ultrasound and the development of novel agents and fabrication techniques for drug delivery systems engineering.

2013

Professor Stuart Wenham

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in the field of lasers and optoelectronics, specifically for his pioneering laser use in advanced silicon solar cell contact formation.

2012

Professor Hugh Griffiths

For his outstanding contributions to radar research and his continuing work to make major improvements in bistatic radar and its applications.

2011

Dr Edward S Boyden

For his pioneering research contributions to, and development of, the field of optogenetics, which has the potential to enable new approaches to therapy.

The Mountbatten Medallists

First awarded in 1992, the Mountbatten Medal is named after The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the first Chairman of the National Electronics Council.

The Mountbatten Medal

The Mountbatten Medal was established by the National Electronics Council in 1992.

The Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, to the promotion of electronics or information technology and their application.

Names and post-nominal letters appear in the list below as recorded in the Roll of Mountbatten Medallists, held in the IET Archives.

Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900 - 1979)

Naval officer and statesman. In 1929, Mountbatten was placed in charge of wireless instruction at Portsmouth.

Finding the teaching materials inadequate, he set up a drawing school to produce standardised drawings of every wireless circuit for the Admiralty Handbook.

In 1931, Mountbatten was appointed Fleet Wireless Officer in the Mediterranean.

In 1943, he became Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asia Command.

After the war, Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India, a post he held until independence in 1948, and in 1955 became First Sea Lord.

He was President of the IERE in 1947 and 1961.

Previous recipients

2025

Professor Steve Hodges BSc PhD FIET FIEEE

2024

Alan H Weinberg

2023

No recipient

2022

Dr Santokh S Badesha PhD DSc MNAE FNAI FRSC CSci

2021

Professor Nick McKeown

2020

Dr Tong Boon Tang BEng PhD

2019

Dr Irwin Mark Jacobs ScD HonFIET

2018

Professor William Webb FREng BEng MBA PhD DSc DTech CEng FIET FIEEE

2017

Professor Shuji Nakamura

2016

Professor Jean Armstrong BSc MSc PhD FIEAust FIEEE MIET

2015

Dr Alan Finkel AO FTSE FIEAust

2014

Dr Ronjon Nag BSc SM PhD FIET

2013

Dr Ian Nussey OBE FREng HonFIET

2012

Professor Vincent Fusco FREng BSc PhD DSc CEng FIET

2011

Professor Peter William McOwan BSc MSc PhD MIET CSci FBCS

2010

Eli Yablonovitch

2009

David Ogden

2008

Professor Kevin Warwick BSc PhD DIC DSc(Eng) FCGI CEng

2007

Professor Andrew Blake FREng FRS

2006

Mr John P Leighfield CBE

2005

Sir David Brown FREng BSc DMS CEng FIEE

2004

Professor Andy Hopper FREng BSc PhD CEng FIEE

2003

No recpient

2002

No recpient

2001

Professor David N Payne FRS

2000

Dr Hermann Hauser

1999

Mrs Steve Shirley OBE BSc CEng FBCS

1998

J David Rhodes OBE FEng FRS

1997

Professor Tom Kilburn CBE FEng FRS & Professor Maurice V Wilkes FRS FEng

1996

Tim Berners-Lee

1995

Peter Bonfield CBE FEng

1994

Dr David Potter MA PhD

1993

Professor W A Gambling PhD DSc FEng FRS HonFIEE

1992

Sir Ernest Harrison OBE FCA CompanionIEE HonFCGI

Other resources of interest