Indian-origin physician Ravi Solanki wins award for COVID-19 work in UK

Ravi Solanki, an Indian-origin physician has been named among the 19 winners of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service. The winners have been announced for the exceptional achievements in tackling COVID-19 throughout the United Kingdom.

Ravi Solanki is a physician who has been working on neurodegenerative diseases. He along with Raymond Siems, an engineer working in machine learning, has been awarded for their volunteer work to help in building a secure and fully functioning website for a new National Health Services (NHS) charity HEROES.

The honours announced on August 17, 2020, have been awarded to the teams, organisations, individuals, projects, and collaborations across all the technical specialties, career stages, and disciplines within the UK Engineering community.

Today we’re proud to announce 19 winners of our President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service – teams and individuals recognised for their exceptional engineering achievements in tackling COVID-19: https://t.co/q2U0X28JhM pic.twitter.com/Zp4lBSjp04

— Royal Academy of Engineering (@RAEngNews) August 17, 2020

It’s been a privilege to work with @RaymondSiems and @juniordrblog to support NHS workers during this pandemic. It’s unexpected and humbling to be recognised by @RAEngNews for this work - many have contributed exceptionally in these trying times, including all at @HelpThemHelpUs_ https://t.co/jy7KSOnq3Y

— Ravi Solanki (@ravi_sola) August 17, 2020

Indian-origin physician contributes in a fight against COVID-19:

The duo, Ravi Solanki and Raymond Siems, have been praised for working in the record time for making the platform efficient and sophisticated, ensuring that it could enable funding, well being and can provide counselling, childcare support and the sustainable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the National Health Services (NHS) workers.

As per the Academy’s citation, Raymond and Ravi’s round the clock contributions have allowed the new charity to tap into the public sentiment and collect collections quickly so that the workers can receive the support that they needed when the pandemic was at its peak in the UK.

The citation added that their technical know-how had allowed HEROES to support 90,000 NHS workers in three months. Their work to expand the digital platform and support provided to healthcare workers has been ongoing.

In less than two days, the team including Wilson Griffiths and Evan Martin turned into a genuine impact secure website with the help of which more than 5,43,000 items of much-needed support have been provided to the workers.

Recognition of work amid COVID-19 crisis:

The honours have been awarded within the UK Engineering community who have contributed to addressing the challenges of the pandemic. Specially commissioned silver medals will also be presented to all the 19 winners later in 2020.

As per Professor Sir Jim McDonald, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering mentioned that the pandemic is the biggest public health crisis which has presented society with multiple challenges. Engineering innovation and expertise have been central to the global fight to save lives.

He further added that he is also incredibly proud of the engineers everywhere who have been working round the clock to maintain critical supply chains, essential services, and infrastructure in these times.

The President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service:

The President’s Special Awards for Pandemic Service has been overseen by the Academy’s Award Committee.

The other awards have covered the breathing aids, innovative ventilator devices, face shields, and respirators, as essential equipment in a fight against COVID-19. Chair of Academy’s Award Committee, Professor Raffaella Ocone added, Engineering Skills- including interdisciplinary and innovation- have proved to be of vital importance during the pandemic.