Professor Jeff Magee named as Principal of the UK’s largest engineering faculty, at Imperial College London

Professor Jeff Magee, currently the Faculty’s Deputy Principal (Research) and Head of the Department of Computing, takes up the role on 1 January 2011. - News release

Imperial College London News Release

Monday 8 November 2010

Professor Jeff Magee, currently the Faculty’s Deputy Principal (Research) and Head of the Department of Computing, has been appointed Principal of the Faculty of Engineering. He takes up the role on 1 January 2011.

Professor Magee, 58, has over 30 years' experience of computer science research, focusing on the software engineering of distributed systems, groups of computers which are autonomous but also connected and operating as a network. He has worked extensively with industry, including BP, BT and Barclays Capital, through research collaborations and consultancy work.

He will lead the Faculty of Engineering’s activities, and will be a member of the College's Management Board, its senior decision-making body. The Faculty is the largest in the UK, with over 5,000 students and a research income of £60 million. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010–11 Imperial was ranked 4th in Europe and 9th in the world for engineering and information technology.

Professor Magee succeeds Professor Stephen Richardson FREng, who has held the roles both of Principal and Deputy Rector since November 2009. Welcoming the appointment, Rector Sir Keith O’Nions said:

“This is a demanding job, requiring great energy and vision, but over his time at Imperial Jeff has demonstrated these qualities many times over. It is with great confidence and pleasure that we welcome him to his new role.”

Professor Magee said:

“The Faculty of Engineering at Imperial has a world-leading breadth and depth of engineering expertise and talent. It is a very great honour and privilege to be appointed its Principal, a great opportunity to facilitate the application of its engineering expertise to the serious problems that face our society and a great personal challenge to live up to the record of my predecessor.”

A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, Professor Magee first joined Imperial as a postgraduate studying an MSc in Computing Science in 1977. He went on to complete a PhD in Computing Science at Imperial in 1984, before joining the Department of Computing as a lecturer in the same year. He was promoted to professor in 1999 and became Head of the Department in 2004.

He was elected a Fellow of the British Computer Society in 2005 and was the co-recipient of the ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering Outstanding Research Award for his work in Distributed Software Engineering.

A full biography is available in Notes to Editors and a photograph of Professor Magee is available on request.

ENDS

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Imperial College London
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Notes to editors:

1. Biographical information

Professor Jeff Magee is a graduate in electrical engineering and holds MSc and PhD degrees in Computing Science from Imperial College London. He was appointed Head of the Department of Computing at Imperial in 2008 and Deputy Principal (Research) of the Faculty of Engineering in 2008.

His research is primarily concerned with the software engineering of distributed systems, including design methods, analysis techniques, operating systems, languages and program support environments for these systems. Distributed systems are groups of computers which are autonomous but also connected and operating as a network.

His work on software architecture was put to commercial use by Phillips in their current generation of consumer television products. His work with industry also includes collaborations with BP, BT, NATS, Fujitsu, Barclays Capital, QinetiQ, and Kodak.

He is the author of over 100 refereed publications and has co-authored a book on concurrent programming entitled 'Concurrency - State models and Java programs' which is now in its 2nd Edition and has sold over 15,000 copies. He was co-editor of the 'Institute of Electrical Engineering’s Proceedings on Software Engineering' and until 2007 was Associate Editor of 'Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology'.

Professor Magee was program co-chair of the 24th International Conference on Software Engineering held in Buenos Aires, Argentina and chaired the International Conference on Software Engineering Steering Committee from 2002-2004. He was a member-at-large of the ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering Committee from 2002-2005 and is a founder member of Informatics Europe – the association of European Computing research departments.

He was awarded the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT) 1999 Brendan Murphy prize for the best paper in Distributed Systems and the IEE Informatics Premium prize for 1998/99 for a paper jointly authored with Professor Kramer on Software Architecture. He is the co-recipient of the 2005 ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering Outstanding Research Award for his work in Distributed Software Engineering.

Website: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.magee

2. About Imperial College L ondon

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.

In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.

Website: www.imperial.ac.uk