Eben Upton

During his time at Cambridge, Eben recognised that compulsory education in the UK was not equipping pupils with the knowledge, skills and experience of the fundamentals of computing to pursue academic study and productive careers in the digital economy.

The UK had squandered its legacy of pioneering leadership in computing research development and commerce and the absence of teaching at a foundation level was the root cause. Eben set out to address that challenge by developing the Raspberry Pi bare bones computer.

Eben's foresight, energy, enthusiasm and ability to inspire and motivate others has led to the Raspberry Pi becoming a global success, that has become integral to an eco-system largely enabled by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The Raspberry Pi has, at the time of writing, reached global sales of 19 million units, making it the UK's best-selling computer, and by some measures the world's third best-selling general computer. The Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, with its network of communities and wealth of free educational resources has become a key enabler, collaborator, or founder of initiatives such as CAS, Code Club, Apps4Good and PiAcademy.

Eben has continued and renewed the legacy of pioneering innovators from Cambridge who have successfully bridged academic research, commerce and education, and it is fitting that the Raspberry Pi's model numbering convention follows that of the BBC Microcomputer of Acorn fame and utilises the ARM processor created by Acorn.

Eben's drive and commitment has put the UK firmly back on the map as leader in computing education, and a centre of excellence for innovation that in 2014 reached beyond the planet when Major Tim Peake used the Raspberry Pi in a coding competition on the ISS.

Eben was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours List. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2017.