2015 QEPrize Trophy

Trophy BW047

In 2014, we held the second ‘Create the Trophy’ competition, to find the designer of the trophy that would be awarded to the 2015 winner. Young people were invited to come up with a design for the trophy using a specially designed computer program.

For the first time in 2014, The QEPrize invited the British public to help select the winner of the Create the Trophy competition. They were asked to view the nine shortlisted designs and vote for their favourite on Facebook. The people’s vote was counted as the seventh judge on the Create the Trophy competition judging panel.

The winner of the 2014 competition was Euan Fairholm from Edinburgh, who beat hundreds of UK hopefuls with his design The Golden Crown. Euan’s design was developed into a final form and 3D printed by QEPrize donor company BAE systems. The trophy was presented by Her Majesty the Queen to Dr Robert Langer, the winner of the 2015 QEPrize, at Buckingham Palace on 26th October 2015.

20-year-old Euan, who is studying Mechanical Engineering at Glasgow University, also received £2,000. Euan said:

“It is a great honour to have my design selected to be the trophy for The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. I am both humbled and delighted to consider that something which I contributed to will be used to recognise such great and important achievements in engineering.”

Euan’s design was selected by a panel of leading figures in design, engineering and science: Ian Blatchford (Director of the Science Museum), Roma Agrawal (Structural engineer), David Rowan (Editor-in-Chief, Wired UK), Mark Miodownik (Director of the Institute of Making), Sir John Sorrell (Chairman, University of the Arts, London) and Jennifer Leggett (engineering student and previous ‘Create the Trophy’ winner).

Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum and Chairman of the ‘Create the Trophy’ judging panel said:

“The judges are all agreed that Euan’s design best met the brief. We felt that his work illustrates our dependence on engineering and technology, and demonstrates the fact that modern engineering builds on the work of the past.”

Euan Fairholm