The inaugural Royal Academy of Engineering Armourers and Brasiers Company Prize has been awarded to Professor Judith Driscoll, Professor of Materials Science.
Professor Driscoll's research has revolutionised the properties of high temperature superconductors, enabling them to carry much higher currents in a magnetic field.
By creating nanostructured superconducting thin films, Professor Driscoll has merged the properties of composite materials and electronic materials. This has transformed conventional thinking and generated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of investment in research on these new materials.
Her methods are now becoming widely used throughout the superconductor industry. Emerging applications include generators in wind turbines, motors and MRI, as well as in very high magnetic field magnets for basic science experiments.
The £2,000 prize will be presented at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London on Monday 18 January.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Armourers and Brasiers Company Prize will be awarded every two years for excellence in materials engineering, demonstrated in the successful application of novel materials science and technology in practical engineering systems.
Professor Driscoll said: “I am very honoured and excited to have been awarded the inaugural Royal Academy of Engineering Armourers and Brasiers Company Prize.”
Nigel Perry FREng, Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Committee, said “we are delighted to award the inaugural Royal Academy of Engineering Armourers and Brasiers’ Company Prize to Professor Judith Driscoll for inventing a simple new way to nanoengineer superconductors and other functional materials, achieving much enhanced properties by doing this, and to have delivered many industrial applications from this.”
Professor William Bonfield CBE FREng FRS FMedSci, Chairman of the Armourers & Brasiers Materials Science Committee, said “Professor Judith Driscoll has made an exceptional contribution to device materials, and we are delighted that she has received the recognition conferred by this prestigious new award”.