Touch Bionics, based in Livingston, Scotland, has been chosen to have its i-limb multiarticulating bionic hand recognized on a set of Royal Mail postage stamps that celebrate “Inventive Britain.” The i-limb is one of eight innovations from the last century selected for the special collection.
David Gow, the founder of Touch Bionics and original inventor of the concepts that resulted in the i-limb, grew up in Scotland and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Edinburgh University. He specialized in prosthetic limbs, initially as part of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), and launched the i-limb in 2007. Gow is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2014.
“The Royal Mail stamp is an icon in itself, so to see the i-limb featured on one is a great honor,” Gow told the BBC. “When I first started working in prosthetics, I simply wanted to try and use technology to help improve the lives of people with limb loss. I could never have imagined that it would one day lead to this.”
