Leon Bagrit

Sir Leon Bagrit (13 March 1902 – 22 April 1979) was a leading British industrialist and pioneer of automation.

Leon Bagrit
Born13 March 1902
Kiev, Russian Empire
Died22 April 1979
OccupationIndustrialist
Known forAs a pioneer of automation

Early life & education

Born to Jewish parents in Kiev, in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), Sir Leon studied law at Birkbeck College in the University of London, formed his own company in 1935, and for many years headed the revamped firm of Elliott-Automation Ltd., which, outside the United States, was the largest computer manufacturer in the world.[1]

Career

Leon Bagrit was a member of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 1963–1965 and the Advisory Council on Technology, 1964-1979. He was a director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1962-1970. He founded the Friends of Covent Garden, and chaired it, 1962-1969. In 1964, he was invited by the BBC to present the Reith Lectures.[2] Across six broadcasts, titled The Age of Automation,[3] he explored how the increased technological development of the time would change people's lifestyles, and the wider world.

Due to the generosity of the Bagrit Trust, a dedicated building, the Sir Leon Bagrit Centre, was opened in the summer of 1991. This Centre formed a cornerstone of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London and the next step in the development of bioengineering at Imperial.[4]

gollark: There's an onscreen display for contrast and such.
gollark: You know, nowadays probably even my monitor has proprietary firmware in it.
gollark: I think if you broaden it to "firmware etc. has been reverse engineered successfully and open replacements exist" there might be slightly more.
gollark: Not even FPGA-based CPU things meet your criteria because FPGAs are mostly proprietary and sometimes get reverse engineered.
gollark: I don't spend that much on laptops.

See also

References
  1. Taku, Thomas A. (1999). Framework for Industrialization in Africa. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275964986.
  2. "BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures". BBC.
  3. "BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Leon Bagrit: The Age of Automation: 1964". BBC.
  4. "The Sir Leon Bagrit Memorial Trust". Imperial College London.


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