News

Durham Professor joins Engineering roll of honour

(26 October 2005)

Professor Tony Unsworth, of Durham University's School of Engineering, has joined the ranks of the UK’s most prominent engineers, including Sir Frank Whittle, father of the jet engine and Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the ‘bouncing bomb’ used by the Dam Busters.

Professor Unsworth – a bio-engineer specialising in the workings of artificial joints – has followed in their footsteps by winning the prestigious James Alfred Ewing Medal. Other recipients include Sir John Cockcroft, a Nobel physicist, and the inventor of the hovercraft, Sir Christopher Cockerill.

Professor Unsworth has worked in medical engineering since 1969. He began by studying human joint function and went on to create artificial joints that work in the same way as natural ones, and was among the first people to do this. He introduced the idea of compliant layered joints, copied from human joints, and after 20 years of development this is reaching clinical trials.

The award is being presented to Professor Unsworth by the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the joint nomination of the President and the President of the Royal Society.