The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering

I was trained in engineering as a university student, but I only did about two years of engineering work after I graduated before I moved to a sales and marketing department. I don't miss doing engineering, but I still have casual interests in matters relating to engineering, especially when they involve good inventions and designs that brings benefits to society.

Today I found out about The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which I think is pretty cool. It's an international prize tipped to rival the Nobel Prizes. Worth £1 million, it will be presented every two years for “outstanding advances in engineering that have created significant benefit to humanity”. The first prize will be presented in Spring 2013.

The prize has been set up with an endowment fund provided by several UK and international companies including Shell, BAE Systems, BG Group, BP, Glaxo SmithKline, Jaguar Land Rover, National Grid, Siemens, Sony, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel Europe.

The fund is being managed by an independent charitable trust, and The Royal Academy of Engineering will deliver the prize on its behalf.

More about the prize at the Royal Academy of Engineering website.

From the website:

Message from Lord Browne, Chair of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation

“Engineering underpins every aspect of our lives. As the bridge between scientific discovery and commercial application, engineering feeds and clothes us, and enables us to work, travel and communicate. But too often the engineers behind the most brilliant innovations remain hidden. The Queen Elizabeth Prize aims to change that. It will celebrate, on an international scale, the very best engineering in the world. I believe that this prize will inspire the public, especially young people, with a sense of the excitement and the importance of engineering.”