By creating nanostructured superconducting thin films, Prof 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.
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.”
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.
Prof Driscoll said: “I am very honoured and excited to have been awarded the inaugural Royal Academy of Engineering Armourers and Brasiers Company Prize.”
