Sum of success

The wellbeing of our economy, and our society, depends in large measures on the competitiveness of UK industry. Increasing competitiveness depends on increasing the rate at which we innovate. And that depends on mathematics. It is true for all companies, in all sectors. And it has always been true.

As an electrical engineer one of my great heroes is Michael Faraday, one of the greatest experimental scientists ever, who, on 29 August 1831, discovered the means by which we now generate electricity continuously.

Without that discovery, I wouldn't have a profession. And without another that he made 14 years later, I wouldn't have a job and none of us would have radios, televisions or mobile phones. The discovery was particularly revealing about the role maths plays in innovation.

In 1845, Faraday performed a decisive experiment to show that electricity and magnetism are related to light. He suggested the nature of that relationship is that all forms of electromagnetic energy travel in waves. He described his idea in plain English — he had no choice as he was no mathematician. Indeed, he admitted he had only once performed a mathematical operation — when he turned the handle of Babbage's calculating machine.