Sir Leon Bagrit (13 March 1902 – 22 April 1979) was a leading United Kingdom industrialist and pioneer of automation.
Early life and 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.
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.
Across six broadcasts, titled
The Age of Automation,
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.
See also
-
List of Jews born in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union
-
List of British Jews
-
List of Ukrainian Jews
-
List of Old Olavians
-
Who was Who
-
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
External links
