Making waves, making history

Awards season officially kicked off in October 2024 with our annual Achievement Awards that celebrate incredible talent within engineering and technology – recognising the people who are making a real impact in their industry.

Whether starting out as a passionate apprentice or technician, or in their mid-to- late career, these awards truly recognise the impact of everyone.

Fourteen talented engineers and technologists from around the world were recognised, celebrating the contributions of apprentices, armed forces personnel, early and established career professionals, and IET volunteers.

Our winners are...

• Alan Weinberg, the inventor of the Weinberg converter, which is used in many space applications, was awarded our Mountbatten Medal, for this and his many significant contributions to space power systems following his extensive career, including 23 years at the European Space Agency.

• Professor Ron Hui won our JJ Thomson Medal for his outstanding contributions to academia and industry, including his work on the modern planar wireless charging technologies that underpin Qi. He is now working on how to roll out new and improved versions of this technology to higher power applications such as wireless charging for laptops, e-bikes, drones, robots and kitchen appliances, and he even hopes to support wheelchairs in the future.

Our Achievement Medals went to outstanding STEM pioneers in various industries:

• Professor Kun Yang – for significant contributions to radio resource management and mobile communications.

• Professor Mike E Davies – for international technical advances in signal processing, applied mathematics and machine learning.

• Professor Muhammad Ali Imran – for his contributions as a leading figure within wireless communications and digital technologies, including shaping the UK’s 5G/6G research.

• Professor Rob Deaves – for outstanding global contributions to robotics.

• Richard Harris – for outstanding contributions to education.

Our Achievement Medal for Volunteering went to Ruth Watterson for her passion and commitment to STEM learning. She’s the first IET education officer for the Isle of Man and has been a linchpin for connecting schools across the island with our education resources.

Early career groundbreakers were commemorated too:

• The Sir Henry Royce Award went to Dr Fragkoulis Kanavaris, a senior chartered engineer and an authority on low-carbon concrete.

• The Mike Sargeant Award went to Tejaswi Agarwal for his work in designing and building Zanzibar, Uber’s open-source API gateway, and for his work supporting gender equity and mentoring aspiring engineers.

• The Paul Fletcher Award went to Vimal Rammilan Chaubey for his incredible work supporting the Mumbai Local Network.

We also recognised incredible professionals with our Apprentice and Technician Awards:

• Declan Larkin won the Engineering and Technology Apprentice Award. A software engineer apprentice at Kainos and part-time Beng student, Declan worked on the NHS Digital Covid Testing Initiative and NHS volunteering app, was lead mentor for the Kainos CodeCamp in 2023 and 2024, and was a founding member of his university’s apprenticeship society.

• Joseph Macari won the Engineering and Technology Technician Award. An electrical biased engineer at Heysham 1 Nuclear Power Station, Joseph progressed from an apprentice to a technician. He identified a problem with obsolete protection relays in his dissertation (and has since designed, built and tested an innovative, low-cost electronic solution), and provided tours of the power station for adults and children interested in STEM careers.

• Warrant Officer Matthew Fields won the Armed Forces Technician Award. A military engineer for 30 years, currently employed at RAF Air Command, Matthew worked on equipment for every aircraft type in the MOD inventory. He has worked as an instructor and even helped provide appropriate protective equipment for female aircrew.