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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.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

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

• Time Magazine
• The BBC Reith Lectures: The Age of Automation

References

1. Taku, Thomas A. (1999). Framework for Industrialization in Africa. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275964986. 9780275964986 ↩

2. "BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures". BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/reithlectures ↩

3. "BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Leon Bagrit: The Age of Automation: 1964". BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h9l82 ↩

4. "The Sir Leon Bagrit Memorial Trust". Imperial College London. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioengineering/about/history/bagrittrust/ ↩