Why do the arts trump engineering?

The QE Prize winner this year is MIT Professor Robert Langer, whose work has saved countless lives around the world

There was a palpable air of excitement and expectation at the announcement of the winner of the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which took place at the Royal Academy of Engineering's headquarters in London earlier this week.

An introduction to proceedings from the Duke of York gave the event the royal stamp of approval. And there were plenty of print journalists from newspapers such as the Times in attendance to show that the prize had widespread media appeal.

Dr Robert Langer, a visionary chemist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, emerged as the worthy winner, having saved countless lives around the world with his work into engineering at the interface of chemistry and medicine (see here for more details).

To Langer the spoils, a not inconsiderable £1 million. This figure is way in excess of the £50,000 given to the winner of the Man Booker prize for literature, or the £25,000 awarded to the winner of the Turner prize for modern art. Yet both these accolades grab far more headlines than the Queen Elizabeth prize could ever hope to achieve. Indeed, it was noticeable that there was a woeful lack of coverage of Langer's success on national TV broadcasts.

Why such disparity? Both the Man Booker and Turner prizes are longer established, so that might go someway to explaining their higher profile. But there's more to it than that. There's a feeling that the noise created by these prizes is a reflection of the greater importance afforded to arts and literature when compared to engineering. It's a representation of national priorities, and perceived levels of respect. That's something that has to change if engineering is to sell itself to younger people and avoid predicted skill shortages coming down the track.

There's no doubting that the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering has made a real impact in the short time since it was established. But like the profession it represents, it still has a long way to go before it gets the recognition it deserves.