2025 Awards

The IAgrE Award of Merit - The Award of Merit is made to a person distinguished by their work in agricultural science or engineering or one that has rendered outstanding service to the Institution.

Professor Simon Pearson FIAgrE - for his outstanding contribution to Robotics and AI 

Simon was humbled and delighted to receive this award and thanked the Institution for their support.  He plans to continue to develop his work while supporting the next generation of aspiring robotics engineers.

IAgrE Award For Contribution to the Land-based Sector - This Award is made to those who have made sustained contributions to the land-based sector throughout their career.

Ruth Bailey MIAgrE, CEO of the AEA, Ruth has lead the AEA for the last 10 years and has been an active contributer to our IAgrE Council as well as working with IAgrE to ensure excellent training for engineers in our sector.  She has done much to increase the visibility of Agricultural Engineering as a career such as recent work to launch “We are Land-based”.

Watch Ruth's video acceptance by clicking her photo.

IAgrE Award For Contribution to the Land-based Sector - This Award is made to those who have made sustained contributions to the land-based sector throughout their career. 
 

Jeff Claydon for his outstanding contribution to land-based technology designed to fix real farming problems.  His Yield-o-meter and dircte drill concepts have been enbedded into agricultural design.

Jeff was delighted to be recognised for his engineering skills by the Institution and entertained us with details of his career as a “farming engineer”.

The President's Award (formerly the Michael Dwyer Memorial Prize) - The prize is to a mid-career engineer who has made outstanding progress in the agricultural engineering industry. The Institution is delighted to make the award again this year.

Dr Paula Misiewicz AMIAgrE - for her achievements in agricultural engineering academic research.

Paula was thrilled to be recognised by her Institution and thanked her colleages and mentors who had assisted her career.  She finds her work very rewarding and is delighted to be helping others to achieve success in agricultural engineering.

The Environmental Engineer Award - a new award sponsored by the Douglas Bomford Trust for an individual who has made a substantial contribution to improving any aspect of the environment.

Daniel Mitchell MSc HAU - for his for his thesis Investigation of the effects of compaction methods on the hydraulic conductivity of clay bunding to enable selective control of hydrology in agricultural and paludiculture application

Dan was pleased to attend the Awards day and was excited that his project was chosen for this award.  He thanked the staff at Harper Adams University for their help and support and he is looking forward to a successful career in environmental engineering.

The Environmental Engineer Team Award - a new award sponsored by the Douglas Bomford Trust for a team who have made a substantial contribution to improving any aspect of the environment.

Holme Fen Regeneration Project lead by Martin Parsons CEng CEnv FIAgrE

Martin was joined by Jo Finlow, Project Manager for the Fens East Peat Partnership.  Both Martin & Jo very much enjoyed their day with us and were pleased that this important environmental work is being supported and recognised.

Institution Meritorious Service Award - A person who has rendered outstanding service to the Institution through work for a Branch or Group, through their teaching or as a volunteer.

Chris Watts CEng CEnv FIAgrE - Membership Committee - for his committment and support of the Membership Secretary and the Committee

Chris was pleased to attend to accept this award and explained that he feels it is a privilege to work with others to improve the career progression of fellow engineers.

Institution Meritorious Service Award - A person who has rendered outstanding service to the Institution through work for a Branch or Group, through their teaching or as a volunteer.

David Yates EngTech MIAgrE - East Midlands Branch - for his enthusiasm and support of the East Midlands Branch.

David was delighted to attend and accept this award and has been pleased to help ensure that the East Midlands Branch continues to thrive.

Douglas Bomford Paper Award - The Award is offered to the author or authors of a paper which, in the previous calendar year, was published in full in the Institution journals “Landwards” and/or “Biosystems Engineering”. At least one of the authors must be a member of the Institution.

The winner of the Award this year, for his contribution to the paper “Comparison of Transformers with LSTM for classification of the behavioural time budget in horses based on video data” Albert Martin-Cirera, Magdelena Nowak, Tomas Norton, Ulrike Auer, Maciej Oczak  Biosystems Engineering, Volume 242, 2024, Pages 154-168, ISSN 1537-5110, the link to the paper may be found here.

Dr Tomas Norton FIAgrE - Tomas was unable to attend this year but sent a video messag eof thanks which may be viewed by clicking the photograph.
 

IVEL Award - This award is made at the LAMMA Show to the overall best product or environmetal innovation at the show

The 2025 Award was presented to Knight's Fram Machinery at the LAMMA show in January by CEO Charlie Nicklin for the “Smart Inject” sprayer system designed to reduce the application of chemical on farm. 

Brian Knight MIAgrE was very pleased to join the celebrations at Abbey Park and had a most enjoyable day with us.

Student Awards

IAgrE CNH Industrial Award - Made on the basis of a dissertation or thesis undertaken by an undergraduate or postgraduate student as part of their studies demonstrating innovation and practical application in the landbased industry. 

Postgraduate Award

Luke Waldram MEng HAU - An Investigation To Determine The Feasibility Of Integrating Stop-Start Technology Into Off-Highway Vehicles. (Using a Mercedes Benz Unimog U530 as a case study)

It was lovely that Luke was part of the hosting team at AGCO and he was surprised and thrilled to have been awarded this prize.  His parents were delighted to come and share the day with us.

George Fairbairn from CNHi was pleased to present the Award to Luke.

IAgrE CNH Industrial Award - Made on the basis of a dissertation or thesis undertaken by an undergraduate or postgraduate student as part of their studies demonstrating innovation and practical application in the landbased industry. 

Undergraduate Award

David Goodchild BEng HAU – Developing a standard tine wear evaluation 

David felt very fortunate to have been presented with the award and he was pleased his father could join him for the day.

Again, we welcomed George Fairbairn from CNHi to present the Award to David.

Student Project Award - This award is given to the best final year project submitted as part of a course leading to ND, NVQ Level 3, or similar qualification in land based engineering.   
 

Tom Ablitt, Coleg Sirgar for hisproject - Silage bunker cleaner 

Tom was very pleased to receive this award and is now studying Agricultural Engineering at Harper Adams University, where he is also persuing his EngTech qualification.

IAgrE Safety Award - This award has been established to encourage and recognise innovation in safe design or operation of equipment or processes by students studying agricultural engineering or subjects related to the application of engineering and technology to the land-based sector. 

Hywel Jones TIAgrE, Coleg Sirgar - for his  project “Trailed implement efficiency monitor ”

Hywel was joined by his parents and brother, who were thrilled to see him receive his award.  Hywel is now working for a local dealership and thoroghly enjoying his career