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Tohoku University alumnus and Distinguished Invited University Professor, Masato Sagawa, has won the 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. The award recognizes his discovery, development and global commercialisation of the sintered Neodymium Iron Boron (Nd-Fe-B) permanent magnet, and its contribution towards cleaner, energy-saving technologies.

Sagawa, who received his doctorate degree from the Graduate School of Engineering in 1972, is one of the world's leading experts in permanent magnet materials research.

He won the Japan Prize in 2012, and his Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets can be found in many home appliances, industrial machines, automobiles, medical equipment and wind turbines - helping them achieve greater energy efficiency by making them smaller, lighter and capable of higher output.

Sagawa was appointed a Tohoku University Distinguished Invited University Professor in 2019, and was a co-recipient of the 2021 IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies.

The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is an international award that champions bold, groundbreaking engineering innovation with strong, positive global impact.

Previous recipients include: Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, Louis Pouzin, Marc Andreessen and Sir Tim Berners-Lee for the Internet and World Wide Web in 2013; Robert Langer for controlled release large molecule drug delivery in 2015; Eric Fossum, George Smith, Nobukazu Teranishi and Michael Tompsett for digital imaging sensors in 2017; and Bradford Parkinson, James Spilker, Jr, Hugo Fruehauf and Richard Schwartz for the Global Positioning System in 2019.

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