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For immediate release 18 October 2007 TREVOR BAYLIS OBE PRESENTS PRIZES FOR IAC-SPONSORED AWARD
World-acclaimed British inventor Trevor Baylis OBE was guest of honour at the IAC-sponsored ‘Young Persons’ Award for Innovation in Acoustical Engineering’ Awards dinner in Oxford last night. The dinner took place as part of the IOA’s Autumn Conference, The IAC-sponsored Award celebrates the contribution of young acoustical engineers across a huge range of British industry sectors. The award was scooped this year by young acoustician, Dr Constantin-C. Coussios MIOA. Dr Coussios is a researcher at the Department of Engineering Science within the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford. His award-winning project utilises novel techniques for sensing and controlling acoustic cavitation during cancer therapy by HIFU, with a view to reducing heat damage of good cells lying around a tumour being treated. Trevor Baylis was guest of honour at the Awards Dinner that was attended by IOA members from across the UK and from as far afield as the USA and Japan. Trevor shot to fame with the invention of his Freeplay Wind Up Radio in 1996, and since then has been a flag-flyer for innovation. He now heads up Trevor Baylis Brands plc which works with over 300 inventors at any one time, delivering advice on intellectual property, the subject of his amusing and thought-provoking address at the Awards dinner. He said: “It’s great to see young people’s innovations being recognised in this way and I was delighted to officiate and be able to share some words of wisdom with delegates on how they can protect their intellectual property.” In addition to a solid silver replica of the trophy, Constantin receives a luxury weekend break for two in Barcelona with tickets to a concert of his choice, and lunch with Spain’s Institute of Acoustics. He surprised the delegates by generously donated his prize cheque of £500 for the best technical paper by a young acoustician to be presented at the IOA’s next conference in the Spring 2008. On accepting his award, Dr Constantin Coussios said: “As a young researcher, I feel honoured and encouraged. Acoustics enabled many life-changing developments in the course of the last century, ranging from supersonic flight to numerous architectural wonders. I very much hope that this Award will encourage other young acousticians to work on what constitutes, in my view, the biggest acoustics challenge of the 21st century: the understanding and harnessing of the many potentially beneficial interactions between acoustic waves and biological tissue.” Frederic Cegla of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Imperial College London was awarded First Runner Up for his project on Ultrasonic Thickness Monitoring in Harsh Environments. Second Runner Up was Lara Harris of the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research in Southampton for her work on Bass Reproduction Quality in Loudspeakers. Brian Quarendon, Chief Executive Officer of the Award’s corporate sponsor, IAC Limited said: “As a global leader in acoustical engineering applications in noise control we are once again delighted to be supporting the Institute in sponsoring this Award. The standard of entries was very high again this time, and I wish Constantin the very best in his research career and the commercialisation of this exciting development.” Dr Colin English, President of the Institute of Acoustics, said: “We hope that this Award serves as an incentive to persuade more young people to consider this exciting and varied career. The IOA would like to congratulate Dr Constantin Coussios on his achievements so far and in particular his well earned success in being chosen for this award. His important work towards finding a way of treating cancer tumours without surgery will undoubtedly have a terrific impact on continued research in this area. We wish him every success in the future.” ENDS For further press information please contact Sally Davis in the IAC Press Office on 023 9266 1600 sally@theprdepartment.co.uk
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