Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Awarded to Masato Sagawa

The 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was awarded to Masato Sagawa of Japan for the discovery, development and global commercialization of the sintered neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet. Considered the world’s most powerful permanent magnet, its versatile application can be seen in everything from wind turbines, to electric cars, to phone or laptop speakers, and in research efforts on the International Space Center.

“Masato Sagawa went from the invention, to the development, to the manufacturing and that is, I think, the epitome of the highest level of engineering,” said John L. Anderson, President of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and a judge on the 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering award panel. “Sagawa is truly an exceptional engineer whose innovations have contributed significantly toward enabling cleaner, energy-saving technologies,” Anderson said.

Since its inaugural award in 2013, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering has been awarded to NAE members in three of the six awards presented to date.

• In 2013, NAE members Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn and NAE international member Timothy Berners-Lee, along with Marc Andreessen and Louis Pouzin, were awarded the prize for "the ground-breaking work that started in the 1970s, which led to the internet and the World Wide Web.”
• In 2015, NAE member Robert Langer was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his revolutionary advances and leadership in engineering at the interface of chemistry and medicine. The award credits Langer with improving more than two billion lives worldwide through the disease treatments created in his lab.
• In 2019, NAE members Bradford Parkinson and James Spilker were awarded The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, along with Hugo FrueHauf and Richard Schwartz, for their work on GPS.

Joining Anderson on the judging panel for the 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering were NAE members Jean-Lou A. Chameau, Josephine Chang, and Henry T. Yang, and NAE international members Lynn F. Gladden, Chair, Raghunath A. Mashelkar, and Viola Vogel.

The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is awarded to up to five engineers responsible for a bold, groundbreaking engineering innovation of global benefit to humanity. In 2022, the program transitioned from a biennial award to an annual award with a prize amount of £500,000.

For more information on the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, or to view the live announcement of the 2022 award recipient, visit qeprize.org.