Alumnus Billy Boyle (1997) is a serial inventor, entrepreneur and a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medallist. At Cambridge, he co-founded Owlstone Nanotech, marketing a programmable microchip sensor with applications ranging from toxic gas detection to disease diagnostics and deployed globally in the defence, oil, food, water and health sectors. Owlstone has raised over $38 million, with more than $32 million in military contracts, and was a 2008 MacRobert Award finalist. In 2016, Billy led the spin out of Owlstone Medical whose non-invasive breathalyser for disease won the 2018 MacRobert Award. As CEO, he leads more than 170 researchers, has raised over $80 million and his products are deployed in over 150 clinical sites globally.
Commenting on his election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Billy said: “I think engineers and engineering can tackle some of the most difficult problems we face today – from healthcare to the future of energy. It is a great privilege to become a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, an institution at the forefront of working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age. The Department of Engineering at Cambridge opened my eyes to what engineering can do for society.”
Read more about Royal Academy of Engineering 2020 Fellows on the Department of Engineering website
