The Academy's annual Awards Dinner is the most prestigious event in the Academy’s calendar and celebrates and recognises the very best in UK engineering.
Hosted by broadcaster Amol Rajan, the 2025 ceremony featured presenters including Lord Patrick Vallance KGB HonFREng FRS FMedSci, and Baroness Martha Lane-Fox CBE HonFREng delivered the keynote address.
Royal Fellow, HRH Princess Royal, who was unable to attend the event, wrote a foreword in the event brochure stating:
As Royal Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, I would like to congratulate the awardees from all parts of the United Kingdom who are being recognised for their achievements at this annual celebration of excellence in engineering and technology innovation.
I am encouraged to see the Academy enhance its ambitions through its new five-year strategy. A major part of the work is to build an engineering community fit for the future and recognising the achievements of leading engineers and technologists is a vital component of achieving that goal.
Engineering has the power and potential to transform the world for the better, and tonight's awards will honour those who make it possible.
A number of awards and medals were presented at the ceremony by presenters including Simon Burr of Rolls Royce, Donna Sinnick of Babcock, and the evening culminated in the announcement of the 2025 MacRobert Award winner.
Meet the winners below.
The MacRobert Award
Congratulations to OrganOx who won the MacRobert Award for their breakthrough devices preserving livers and kidneys outside the body for extended periods of time.
They were presented with a £50,000 prize and gold MacRobert Award medal.
The MacRobert Award-winning OrganOx team comprises:
- Professor Constantin Coussios OBE FREng FMedSci - Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
- Professor Peter Friend FRCS FMedSci - Co-founder & Chief Medical Officer
- Dr Toni Day - Global Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs
- Andy Self - Senior Vice President of New Ventures
- Daniel Voyce - Senior Vice President of Product Development and Innovation
- Chris Morris - Director of Clinical Services, New Ventures
- Craig Marshall - Chief Executive Officer
- Jacob Barrett - New Product Development Manager
- Matt Ellen - Software Engineer
- Clint Watts - Head of Software
- Richard Kent - Head of Product Engineering
- Rupa Basu - Chief Commercial Officer
- Jessica Day - New Product Development Manager
MacRobert Award winners, OrganOx, Receiving their award from Science Minister Lord Vallance at the Academy's annual awards dinner, 2025
The 2025 MacRobert Award finalists were:
- Microsoft Azure Fibre who have developed revolutionary hollow core optical fibre technology, replacing the traditional glass core with air, to enable the next generation of global internet connectivity.
- OrganOx for their breakthrough devices preserving livers and kidneys outside the body for extended periods of time, significantly increasing transplant success, reduced healthcare costs, and saving lives globally.
- Synthesia, the generative AI company who have pioneered the world's first and largest human-centric AI video platform, enabling users to create lifelike, multilingual videos using hyper-realistic digital avatars - without the need for cameras or studios.
Meet the 2025 winner and finalists
Supported by The MacRobert Trust and The Worshipful Company of Engineers, the MacRobert Award is the UK's longest-running and most prestigious national prize for engineering innovation.
President's Medal
Chemical processing and sustainability expert Professor Nilay Shah OBE FREng received the 2025 President's Medal in recognition of his enormous contribution to the Academy's work, from policy advice to promoting the Fellowship Fit for the Future initiative.
Previously Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, Professor Shah has recently been appointed as one of four co-directors – one each from engineering, science, business and health – of a new School of Convergence Science in Sustainability at Imperial. The new school aims to address big intractable challenges, such as climate change, decarbonisation and sustainability.
Professor Nilay Shah OBE FREng, 2025 President's Medal award winner
Princess Royal Silver Medals
The Princess Royal Silver Medals were presented by Catherine DeLange to:
- Alex Kendall, CEO and founder of Wayve
- Professor Themis Prodromakis, Regius Chair of Engineering and RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies, at the University of Edinburgh
The Medal recognises outstanding and demonstrated personal contribution to UK engineering, which results in successful market exploitation, by an engineer with less than 22 years in full-time employment or equivalent.
The Princess Royal Silver Medals were presented by New Scientist Editor Catherine DeLangeAlex Kendall (L), Professor Themis Prodromakis (R), 2025 Princess Royal Silver Medalists
Both of this year’s winners are using AI - one to create a general-purpose driving intelligence so autonomous cars can better adapt to new environments - the other to create brain-mimicking devices called memristors that can be used in space and advanced neural implants.
Sir George Macfarlane Medal
With the generous support of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, Dr Mahmoud Wagih, Lecturer in Implantable Electronics at the University of Glasgow, was awarded the Sir George Macfarlane Medal, recognising exceptional achievement in an early stage of his career.
He is being recognised for his work developing wireless power and sensing technologies that could pave the way to maintenance-free smart devices.
Dr Mahmoud Wagih, 2025 Sir George Macfarlane Medalist
Major Project Award for Sustainability
Scottish Water were presented with the 2025 award for Winchburgh Waste Water Treatment Works - a new £35 million state-of-the-art treatment plant delivered in partnership with ESD, Haskoning, and EPS.
Located twelve miles west of Edinburgh, the plant features Haskoning's innovative Nereda technology, which uses naturally occurring microorganisms to treat wastewater in a single tank. This process reduces chemical use and cuts energy consumption by up to 50%, significantly lowering the site's carbon footprint.
The team receiving this award includes:
- Andrew Dyne, Water and Maritime Contracts Manager of Winchburgh project, Haskoning
- Alan Ford, UK Technical Manager, EPS
- Stephen Fraser, Operations manager, ESD
- Colin Maybury, Project Manager, Scottish Water
- Jonny Tyler, Senior Commissioning Engineer, Scottish Water
The team at Scottish Water, 2025 Major Project Award for Sustainability winner
Rooke Award
The 2025 Rooke Award was awarded to Alex Knight, a chartered engineer and founder of STEMAZING, a social enterprise dedicated to transforming the face of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by empowering women to become visible role models for the next generation.
Through STEMAZING’s innovative training and outreach programmes, over 600 women in STEM have been equipped to deliver engaging sessions in primary schools, leading multiple STEM projects with over 45,000 children aged 7 to 9. The project sparks curiosity and shows children - especially girls - that engineering is a space where they belong.
The award was presented by Dr Shini Somara, 2024 Rooke Award winner.
Alex Knight, 2025 Rooke Award winner
Sponsors
The Academy is grateful to its sponsors for supporting the Awards Dinner.
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