The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering hopes our awareness and appreciation will be raised by making Masato Sagawa its 2022 laureate.
The Japanese scientist invented the neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet.
Google: Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering honours magnet pioneer
Sagawa still highly significant today having worked up a second process for NdFeB manufacture that doesn't conflict with his original Sumitomo patents now held by Hitachi Metals, his company was absorbed by Daido Steel.
He is continuing to work on Dy deletion to improve NdFeB economics & Chinese dependence:
The 78 year-old continues to hone his technology. He's currently trying to reduce the amount of another rare-earth element that is used in trace amounts. This is dysprosium (Dy), which further improves a magnet's resistance to heat. But Dy is very scarce.
"We want to lower dysprosium's use to less than 1% of composition, and preferably not use it at all," Dr Sagawa explained.
"If we can do this, it will see neodymium magnets applied even more widely into the marketplace, especially around electric vehicles."
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