Apple’s Design Chief Officer Sir Jony Ive (he was knighted in 2006 for his “services to the design industry”) on Thursday was awarded the 2018 Stephen Hawking Fellowship by the Cambridge Union Society for his technology designs.
According to Varsity, the honorary scholarship was created last year to recognize recipients’ contributions to social discourse and STEM fields. The committee shortlisted 14 prominent figures in STEM fields, with three Cambridge academics ranking each of them.
Charles Connor, Cambridge Union Society President for Michaelmas 2018, described Ive as one of the “most influential individuals in modern technology”. Ive’s lecture in Michaelmas would include “reflection on his career, split with a more general reflection on technology and design as a whole,” Connor speculated.
The inaugural recipient of the award was the late Professor Stephen Hawking.
Aside from being Apple’s Chief Design Officer, a title Apple created especially for him, Ive is also chancellor at the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Art in London.
As late Steve Jobs’ right-hand man and his closest friend, Ive is responsible for designing Apple’s biggest hits like iMac, iPod, MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. 51 years old, Ive is a honorary fellow of Jesus College and holds over 5,000 patents.