Six Imperial academics among new Fellows of Royal Academy of Engineering

By Laura Gallagher
Monday 10 July 2006

Heads of Department and Division past and present are among six Imperial academics celebrating this month after being elected as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professors Mike Graham , former Head of the Department of Aeronautics; Morris Sloman , Deputy Head of the Department of Computing; Andrew Livingston , Department of Chemical Engineering; Peter Cawley , Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Geoff Maitland , Department of Chemical Engineering; were each elected as Fellows of the Royal Academy on 4 July.

They are joined by Professor Sir Ara Darzi , Head of the Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics in the Faculty of Medicine, who is awarded an Honorary Fellowship.

Sir Ara Darzi is one of the country's leading surgeons and he has consistently been at the forefront of developing new surgical techniques and technologies, making use of engineering to benefit medicine and healthcare. He was one of the first to use the Uks first robot surgeon, the Da Vinci robot, and the first in the UK to trial the use of the RP-6 Robo-Doc system, which would allow doctors to see and examine patients from anywhere in the world.

Sir Ara has also helped set up new skills laboratories to improve surgical skills, and developed new visual and imaging techniques to improve anatomical information for surgeons as they operate. The Royal Academy of Engineering said that although Sir Ara is not a professional engineer, he has "without question, made very significant contributions through his outstanding work in academia, industry and medicine."

Sir Ara said: "As a surgeon from a strong engineering family I always described myself as a failed engineer who ended up doing medicine! This is a great honour, a privilege personally and it mostly reflects the success of interdisciplinary research at Imperial College rather than my personal contribution."

Professor Geoff Maitland was cited for his distinguished research measuring and simulating polymeric fluid flows, in recognition of the benefits that this has brought to the oilfield and general drilling industry. He joined Imperial in September 2005 after 20 years working with Schlumberger in the oil and gas sector.

As Professor of Energy Engineering, he is looking at ways to mitigate the environmental impact of fossil fuels and manage the transition to alternative energies. He is also looking at ways to exploit unconventional sources of hydrocarbons and to recover existing hydrocarbons more efficiently.

Professor Maitland said: "Becoming a Fellow was not something that I ever expected, so learning that I had been elected was a particular pleasure. It is a great honour to be recognised by fellow engineers in this way. I have been extremely fortunate to work with many very talented students and colleagues over the years and this is as much a reflection on them as it is on me."

Mike Graham, Professor of Unsteady Aerodynamics, was elected for outstanding contributions to knowledge of unsteady fluid flow and for the application of this knowledge. He is an established authority on the fluid dynamics of renewable energy devices. His current areas of work are in marine hydrodynamics and wind engineering. His marine hydrodynamics work is particularly concerned with the damping of large floating structures in waves due to vortex shedding, and the vortex induced vibrations of slender structures in the sea. He has recently begun new work on tidal stream turbines. His wind engineering research mainly relates to wind turbine aerodynamics but he also carries out some work on predicting the wind induced forces and responses of wind sensitive structures, such as bridges. Professor Graham said that he was very pleased to have been elected

Morris Sloman, Professor of Distributed Systems Management, was cited for his eminence in developing the use of management policies as a means of defining strategies to respond to changing conditions, component failures or security attacks in networks and pervasive computing systems. Professor Sloman joined Imperial as a lecturer in 1976 and was promoted to Professor in 1996.

Professor Sloman said: "I felt deeply honoured to be elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering. I hope to be able play a part in raising the profile of the Computing profession within the Academy and in promoting Engineering within the UK."

Professor Peter Cawley was awarded a Fellowship for his work in non- destructive testing (NDT) - testing techniques that determine whether a structure is fit for service without themselves causing damage. The Imperial NDT group which he heads is the lead partner in the UK Research Centre in Non Destructive Evaluation, a collaboration between 6 universities and 13 major industrial companies.

Professor Cawley is best known for his work on ultrasonic guided wave methods that allow large areas of structure to be tested from a single transducer position. A group of his PhD students have set up a company that markets the technology worldwide for the inspection of pipes in the petrochemical industry.

Professor Cawley said: "Peer recognition of this sort is the most satisfying of awards. The Fellowship is really recognition of the work of my group as a whole and they deserve enormous credit. My colleagues Mike Lowe and Francesco Simonetti have made major contributions, as have my ex students David Alleyne and Brian Pavlakovic who set up Guided Ultrasonics Ltd that has successfully commercialised our research."

Professor Andrew Livingston was awarded a Fellowship for his eminence in studies into integrating membrane separations with bio chemical and chemical reactions and processes. Professor Livingston, who joined Imperial in 1990, is interested in novel separation technologies for manufacturing chemicals and pharmaceuticals in cleaner and greener ways. These separations are achieved primarily through the application of membranes.

Professor Livingston's research spans from synthesising polymers, forming membranes from these polymers and understanding membrane transport, to application of the membranes to processing, and detailed studies of the biological and chemical reactions in these processes.

Through his spin-out company Membrane Extraction Technologies (MET) he has been involved in the development of technologies such as extractive separations. The membrane aromatic recovery system that he helped develop has reached large scale application in the chemical industry, processing thousands of tons of material per year.

More recently, Professor Livingston's work has also included Organic Solvent Nanofiltration. This pressure-driven membrane process can separate molecules, either to allow valuable molecules to permeate through a membrane and retain impurities or unwanted materials; or to retain valuable materials whilst allowing the other components of the fluid to permeate through the membrane.

Professor Livingston said: "When I found out I had been elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering I was surprised and very pleased! I thought with gratitude of all my colleagues, both at Imperial College and in Membrane Extraction Technology, and all my students, who have worked with me over the years and whose willingness to try new ideas and innovative approaches, even when this meant sometimes having to start from scratch, has always been a source of inspiration for me. To be recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering by being elected a Fellow is a great honour."

Rector of Imperial College Sir Richard Sykes said of the new Fellows: "I am extremely pleased and excited that of the 34 new Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering elected this year, six are from Imperial. This is a fantastic achievement and I would like to congratulate them all. The fact that so many of our staff are Fellows of this prestigious body demonstrates the great strength of engineering research and teaching at the College."

Fellowships of the Royal Academy of Engineering recognise the UK's most distinguished engineers and election is by invitation only. Nominations are made by existing fellows.The new elections bring the total number of Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering at Imperial to 69.

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