Royal Academy of Engineering announces new Fellows for 2007 - <em>News</em>

Thursday 19 July 2007
By Colin Smith

Two engineers at Imperial College London are among 30 distinguished scientists newly elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering this month.

Professor Neil Alford   from the Department of Materials and Professor Richard Vinter   from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering are recognised for their outstanding contribution to engineering. This brings the total number of Fellows at Imperial to 71.

Professor Alford is distinguished for his outstanding development of new inorganic materials including high-strength ceramics, superconducting materials and microwave dielectric ceramics.

His discoveries are considered ‘world firsts’ and have been used widely in industry and have formed the basis for new companies. He comments:

“I am absolutely delighted to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, it is a great honour. The work that I have been doing depends on teamwork and I have a really excellent research group drawn from a range of disciplines. It is largely because of this wealth of talent that we have been able to make progress and I thank them for their help.”

Richard Vinter was recognised for research contributions to control engineering and for leadership of university research teams in this and related fields. His pioneering work on Optimal Control led to the introduction of new analytic techniques with widespread practical applications.

Professor Vinter said that he is pleased to join the ranks of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He comments:

“The Royal Academy has a key role in providing technical advice for government policy making, inspiring students, promoting technology transfer from universities to British industry and fostering high quality engineering research—it is a great privilege to be part of this distinguished fellowship.”

Becoming a Fellow symbolises an active involvement in some of the world’s greatest engineering challenges—from climate change to the sustainable use of raw materials.