James Watt International Medal
Encyclopedia
The James Watt Medal is the name of two awards named after Scottish engineer James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...

, both awarded for excellence in engineering:

James Watt International Gold Medal of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

The James Watt International Gold Medal is awarded by the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...

 (IMechE) to an outstanding mechanical engineer.
"To commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of James Watt on 19 January 1736 - an event which was destined to bring about a revolution in the utilisation of power - the Institution of Mechanical Engineers award every two years a Gold Medal to an engineer of any nationality who is deemed worthy of the highest award the Institution can bestow and that a mechanical engineer can receive. In making the award, the Institution has sought the co-operation and advice of engineering Institutions and Societies in all parts of the world.
To be worthy to receive a medal struck in commemoration of one who was at one and the same time a scientist, an inventor and a producer, the recipient himself should be an engineer who has achieved international recognition both by his works as a mechanical engineer and by the ability with which he has applied science to the progress of mechanical engineering."


Recipients of the James Watt International Gold Medal are:
Year Recipient nominated by Role / Achievements
1937 Sir John Aspinall
John Aspinall
John Aspinall may refer to:* John Aspinall , zoo owner and gambler* John Aspinall , engineer* John Thomas Walshman Aspinall , English Conservative Party politician, Member of Parliament for Clitheroe 1853...

 
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers Locomotive designer
1939 Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
1941 Professor Aurel Stodola
Aurel Stodola
Aurel Boleslav Stodola was an engineer, physicist, and inventor. He was an ethnic Slovak. He was a pioneer in the area of technical thermodynamics and its applications and published his book Die Dampfturbine in 1903...

 
Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects,
Czechoslovakia Society of Engineers,
Engineering Institute of Canada
steam turbine engineer
1943 Anthony Michell
Anthony Michell
Anthony George Maldon Michell FRS was an Australian mechanical engineer of the early 20th century.-Early life:...

 
Institution of Engineers, Australia,
South African Institute of Engineers,
Engineering Institute of Canada
1945 Dr Frederick Lanchester
Frederick Lanchester
Frederick William Lanchester, Hon FRAeS was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering, aerodynamics and co-invented the field of operations research....

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1947 Professor Stephen Timoshenko
Stephen Timoshenko
Stanford University:* Bergman, E. O., * Kurzweil, A. C., * , * Huang, Y. S., * Wang, T. K., * Weber, H. S., * , * , * , -Publications:...

 
Swiss Society of Mechanical Engineers and Architects
1949 Dr Fredrik Ljungström
Fredrik Ljungström
Fredrik Ljungström was a Swedish engineer, technical designer and an industrialist...

 
Swedish Society of Engineers
1951 Dr Hans Henrik Blache  Danish Society of Engineers
1953 Sir Harry Ricardo
Harry Ricardo
Sir Harry Ricardo was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine....

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1955 Dr Igor Sikorsky
Igor Sikorsky
Igor Sikorsky , born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was a Russian American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft...

 
American Society of Engineers
1957 Professor Walther Bauersfeld
Walther Bauersfeld
Walther Bauersfeld was a German engineer, employed by the Zeiss Corporation, who, on a suggestion by the German astronomer Max Wolf, started work on the first projection planetarium in 1912. This work was stopped by military needs during World War I, but resumed after the war...

 
Verein Deutscher Ingenieure
1959 Sir Claude Gibb  Institution of Engineers, Australia,
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1961 Professor Dr Theodore von Karman
Theodore von Karman
Theodore von Kármán was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization...

 
American Society of Engineers
1963 Sir William Stanier
William Stanier
Sir William Arthur Stanier, FRS was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.- Biography :...

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers English mechanical engineer and locomotive designer
1965 Professor Sir Geoffrey Taylor
Geoffrey Taylor
Geoffrey or Geoff Taylor may refer to:* Geoffrey Ingram Taylor , British physicist and mathematician* Geoffrey Taylor , Canadian rower...

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1967 Academician Ivan Ivanovitch Artobolevskii  Academy of Sciences of the USSR
1969 Dr Hideo Shima
Hideo Shima
was a Japanese engineer and the driving force behind the building of the first bullet train .Shima was born in Osaka in 1901, and educated at the Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied engineering...

 
Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Chief engineer of Tōkaidō Shinkansen high speed train
1971 Dr Robert R. Gilruth  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
1973 The Rt Hon the Lord Hinton of Bankside
Christopher Hinton
Christopher Hinton, Baron Hinton of Bankside OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, was a British nuclear engineer, and supervisor of the construction of Calder Hall, the world's first large-scale commercial nuclear power station.-Career:Hinton's career began as graduate engineering apprentice with the Great...

 
Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects
1975 Professor Dr-Ing Siegfried Meurer  Verein Deutscher Ingenieure
1977 Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle
Frank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...

 
New Zealand Institution of Engineers
1979 Raymond Heacock
Raymond Heacock
Raymond L. Heacock , winner of the James Watt International Medal for 1979, was a Caltech engineering graduate who spent his career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked on the Ranger program in the 1960s and on the Voyager program in the 1970s and 80s.-Education and work:Mr Heacock...

 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
1981 Professor J. P. Den Hartog
J. P. Den Hartog
Jacob Pieter Den Hartog was professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He enrolled at TU Delft in 1919 and received his MSc degree in electrical engineering in 1924...

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers Professor emeritus and former head of the department of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1983 Sir Christopher Cockerell
Christopher Cockerell
Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE FRS was an English engineer, inventor of the hovercraft.-Life:Cockerell was born in Cambridge, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockerell, was curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, having previously been the secretary of William Morris. Christopher Cockerell was...

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1985 Sir Hugh Ford
Hugh Ford (engineer)
Sir Hugh Ford FREng FRS was a British engineer. He was Professor of Applied Mechanics at Imperial College London from 1951 to 1978....

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1987 Sir Denis Rooke
Denis Rooke
Sir Denis Eric Rooke, OM, CBE, FRS, FREng was a British industrialist and engineer.-Personal life:Rooke was born in New Cross, London, the younger son of F. G. Rooke. He studied Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at University College London, then served in REME until 1949, attaining...

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1989 John E Steiner  Fellowship of Engineering
1991 Soichiro Honda
Soichiro Honda
was a Japanese engineer and industrialist, and founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd..Honda was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan on November 17, 1906. He spent his early childhood helping his father, Gihei, a blacksmith, with his bicycle repair business. At the time his mother, Mika, was a weaver. At...

 
Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
1993 Frédéric d'Allest  Comitedes Applications Academie des Sciences, France aero and space engineer, head of ISAE and Arianespace
Arianespace
Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial space transportation company. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane 5 rocket launcher as part of the Ariane programme....

1995 Eiji Toyoda
Eiji Toyoda
is a prominent Japanese industrialist, who was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later chairman.-Career:...

 
Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
1997 Sydney Gillibrand  Institution of Mechanical Engineers
1999 Professor Sir Bernard Crossland
Bernard Crossland
Prof Sir Bernard Crossland CBE, FRS was an engineering educator with a career spanning some seven decades. He was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1987 and was knighted in 1990 for services to Northern Ireland.-Life:...

 
Institution of Engineers of Ireland
2001 Professor Duncan Dowson  Institution of Mechanical Engineers
2003 Sir Ralph Robins
Ralph Robins
Sir Ralph Robins was the CEO of Rolls-Royce. He served 20 years on the board of Rolls-Royce, retiring in 2003 after 10 years as chairman.He graduated from Imperial College London and joined Rolls-Royce as a graduate apprentice in 1955...

 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
2005 Leroy 'Skip' Fletcher  American Society of Mechanical Engineers

James Watt Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers

The James Watt Medal is also a lesser known award of the British Institution of Civil Engineers
Institution of Civil Engineers
Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineering. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150...

(ICE) for energy engineers.

From the Institution of Civil Engineers website:
"The James Watt Medal is awarded for papers having a substantial mechanical engineering content. The medal, named after James Watt, the Scottish mechanical engineer and inventor who died in 1819, was introduced by Robert Stephenson (President of ICE in 1855 -1856) who recommended Council to acquire the dies of the medal from Joseph S Wyon in 1858."

When he receaved the medal he had a smile ear to ear. He was the most thankful and kind person Birmingham has ever known.
Recipients of the James Watt Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers include:
  • Mr. Basil Wood (date of award 1980s?) for his work on Combined Heat and Power
  • Paul Kassabian. (2000). structural engineer with interests in design, dynamic control, and deployable structures.
  • Professor Sergio Pellegrino (2000). Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Specializes in deployable lightweight structures.
  • Choo Yoo Sang, J W Boh, and L Louca (2005).
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK