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Academy announces engineering awards for transformative work during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Engineering’s ‘COVID 19’ – exceptional individuals and teams of engineers to be honoured

  • Pandemic service achievements span the whole field of engineering from ventilators and vaccines to hospital building and infection tracking

The Royal Academy of Engineering has awarded 19 individuals and teams of engineers with the President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service for exceptional engineering achievements in tackling COVID-19 throughout the UK.

The awards have been made to teams, organisations, individuals, collaborations and projects across all technical specialities, disciplines and career stages within the UK engineering community who have contributed to addressing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specially commissioned silver medals will be presented to all 19 winners later this year.

The President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Services

The winners are:

Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: “The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest public health crisis of our time and has presented society with multiple challenges. Engineering expertise and innovation has been central to the global fight to save lives and protect livelihoods.

“I am also incredibly proud of engineers everywhere who have worked round the clock to maintain essential services, critical supply chains and infrastructure in unprecedented circumstances, using their training and skills to find innovative solutions to a host of problems and to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our daily lives.”

Professor Raffaella Ocone OBE FREng FRSE, Chair of the Academy’s Awards Committee, says: “Engineering skills—including innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration—have proved to be of vital importance during the current pandemic. We were delighted that the breadth of nominations for these awards reflected so much of the extraordinary work engineers have been doing.

“While I am delighted that we are able to recognise some of these outstanding achievements with these awards I am mindful that the important work of the vast majority of engineers will remain largely outside the public’s consciousness. They are all deserving of our thanks and admiration for their continuing positive contribution to society.”


Notes for editors

  1. The President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service were overseen by the Academy’s Awards Committee, which identifies winners for all of the Academy’s prizes and awards (with the exception of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and the MacRobert Award for UK Engineering Innovation).

  • Professor Raffaella Ocone OBE FREng FRSE (Chair)
  • Dr Alan Belfield FREng
  • Professor Mojtaba Ghadiri FREng
  • Tony Graham FREng
  • Professor Yike Guo FREng
  • Professor David Johnson FREng
  • Dr Raouf Kattan FREng
  • Professor Andrew Lewis FREng
  • Alan Newby FREng
  • Professor Graham Reed FREng
  • Dr Richard Taylor FREng
  • Dr John Tubman FREng
  • Jane Wernick CBE FREng
  1. The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with its Fellows and partners, the Academy is helping to tackle the greatest challenges of our age by growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.

For more information please contact:

  • Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering
  • Tel. 0207 766 0636
  • Email: [email protected]


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