The 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) has been officially awarded today to Japan’s Dr Masato Sagawa for his work on the discovery, development and global commercialisation of the sintered Neodymium Iron Boron permanent magnet - the world’s most powerful permanent magnet - which has been transformational in its contribution towards enabling cleaner, energy-saving technologies.
Dr Sagawa was announced as the winner of the 2022 QEPrize – awarded annually to celebrate the critical role that engineering plays in global society – by Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation.
Dr Sagawa pioneered the development of a sintered rare-earth permanent magnet, the sintered neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet. His breakthrough innovation was the creation of a new compound formed by replacing scarce and expensive cobalt and samarium with more abundant and cheaper iron and neodymium and at the same...