A very warm welcome to you wherever you’ll be joining us for our inaugural Awardee Excellence Community event - in Belfast, Sheffield, Glasgow, London, or online.
This is the first time the Academy has hosted an event of this nature - held simultaneously in different locations as well as online. And it is fitting that we are doing so to launch our Awardee Excellence Community, created to bring together all the exceptional and talented individuals from across the UK and internationally who are current and former awardees and alumni of our different programmes, prizes and medals.
Our aim is for this to become a powerful, vibrant, connected and diverse community of engineering leaders. I hope the day's events give you a flavour of what is possible through connecting and working with others within the community.
From everyone at the Academy, we look forward to welcoming you on the day.
Keynote speaker
Billy Boyle MBE FREng
Billy Boyle MBE FREng has a vision to change the way we currently diagnose and monitor serious disease. He is the co-founder and CEO of Owlstone Inc., whose mission is to become the global leader in the non-invasive detection of cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases – in the process saving 100,000 lives and $1.5 billion in healthcare costs. Billy received the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal and was a winner of the 2018 MacRobert Award; he was then made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020 and an MBE in 2021. Billy sits on the CRUK Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee and was previously a judge for the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Pioneer award and a trustee of the Linacre Institute. He likes to combine a love of running with raising money for charities such as CRUK.
Attendees
Find out about some of the other attendees you can meet at the event or pre-connect through their profile below.
Attendees A- F
Dr Ralf Bauer
Senior Lecturer, University of Strathclyde
Research Fellowship, 2016
I have a background in optics and microsystem technology, developing optical microsystems and their application into imaging and sensing systems. More recently my research is focusing on developing and miniaturising optical microscopy technology for next generation biomedical imaging applications.
Lorna Bennet
Project Engineer, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Ingenious Public Engagement Award, 2018
I have nearly 10 years experience in the offshore renewable energy sector, currently focusing on sustainability, circular economy and supply chain resilience for the offshore wind industry. I am a passionate STEM Ambassador working with schools and universities to engage and enthuse the next generation of engineers and scientists.
Dr Zuansi Cai
Associate Professor, Edinburgh Napier University
Industrial Fellowship, 2021
Zuansi Cai is an Environmental Modeller and a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College in energy storage. He has recently developed a new numerical simulator for large-scale hydrogen and gas-mixture storage in subsurface.
The simulator (GPSFLOW) is capable of simulating non-isothermal, multi-phase and multi-component flow in subsurface storage reservoir for Hydrogen and compressed air energy storage as well as geothermal storage.
Attendees G-M
Professor Paul Hoskisson FRSE
Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Engineering Biology of Antibiotics & Chair of Molecular Microbiology, University of Strathclyde
Research Chair, 2020
Paul Hoskisson is the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Engineering Biology at the University of Strathclyde.
Paul completed his first degree in 1997 in Applied Microbiology, before a short period in the industry developing Influenza vaccines. He completed his PhD in 2001, studying antibiotic production. Post-doctoral work at the John Innes Centre (Norwich) and University of Aberdeen – working on various aspects of gene regulation and antibiotic production was followed by a move to the University of Strathclyde in 2007.
Paul was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2016 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021. The research in Paul’s laboratory is focused on evolution inspired engineering biology of antibiotic biosynthesis, evolution of antibiotic-producing bacteria and antimicrobial resistance.
Paul is Chief Scientific Officer of Microplate DX a spin-out from the University of Strathclyde using electrical sensors to detect antimicrobial resistant bacteria in clinical samples.
Professor Charles MacLeod
Babcock International Group / Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Sensor Driven Automated Welding, University of Strathclyde
Research Chair, 2022
Highly multidisciplinary research in areas related to advanced sensing, instrumentation and automation in manufacturing processes, inspection and Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of high value and large-scale manufactured/re-manufactured components and assets.
Dr Dimitrios Gerogiorgis
Reader (Associate Professor) in Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh
Industrial Fellowship, 2018
Dr Dimitrios Gerogiorgis is a Reader and Director of the MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering, specialising in process systems design and optimisation for advanced food and drink and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
His RAEng Industry Fellowship (2017-18), 'Data Analytics for Multiobjective Beer Fermentation and Filtration Optimisation' advanced brewing operations with significant profitability gains, in collaboration with leading companies (WestBeer, MolsonCoors): its impact (10% batch time reduction) was recognised with an IChemE distinction (2017). His Royal Society Industrial Fellowship (2020-22) in pharmaceutical manufacturing (GSK), led to the current EPSRC grant ‘RAPID: Real-time Process Modelling and Diagnostics-Powering Digital Factories’.
He has 110 peer-reviewed publications and is a Subject (Process Engineering) Editor on IChemE’s Food&Bioproducts Processing (FBP) journal. He has received the Academy of Athens Mousoulos Publication Prize (2015), the IChemE Global Food+Drink Award High Commendation (2017), a CSIRO International CFD Conference Award (Australia), and an RSE Scottish Crucible membership (2015).
Currently, he serves a Guest Editor of the FBP special issue on ‘AI and ML in Food and Beverage Manufacturing’.
Attendees N-S
Professor Dimitrios Pezaros
Professor of Computer Networks, University of Glasgow
Research Chair, 2023
Dimitrios Pezaros, PhD, CEng, FBCS, FIET, is full Professor and Director of the Networked Systems and Cyber-Defence laboratories at the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, where he holds the Dstl & CINF / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Digital Resilience for Critical National Infrastructure.
He has received significant funding from UK, European, and international funding agencies and industry, and has published widely in the areas of computer communications, network management, and network resilience. His research is focusing on assuring the operation of future networked infrastructures through the exploitation of closed-loop and machine-learning-based monitoring and control algorithms, and using programmable networking and function virtualisation technologies.
His research pays particular attention to resource-constrained environments connected at the edge of the Internet and, over the past three years, he is leading work supported by the Control and Instrumentation Nuclear Industry Forum (CINIF) and the MoD focusing on cybersecurity of converged OT/IT environments prevalent in the Defence and Civil Nuclear CNI sectors.
Dr Wasiu Popoola
Reader in Communication Engineering, University of Edinburgh
The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, 2022
Interested in the broad field of communication engineering, particularly optical communications.
Professor Derryck Reid
Professor, Heriot-Watt University
Renishaw/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Real-Time Dual-Comb LiDAR for Manufacturing Metrology, 2023
Professor Reid's interests are in ultrafast lasers for spectroscopy, metrology and astronomy.
Attendees T-Z
Dr Mahmoud Wagih
UK IC Research Fellow and Lecturer (Proleptic), University of Glasgow
UK IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, 2021
I'm a microwave/antenna engineer researching sustainable "green" electronics. My focus is RF energy harvesting, wireless power, RFID/RF sensing, & passive communication.
I also work with new materials, printed/flexible electronics, wearables, and energy harvesting/IoT systems.
I am currently a UK IC Fellow and a Proleptic Lecturer at the University of Glasgow; previously, I was a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton, where I received my PhD (2021) and BEng (2018) in Electronic & Electrical Engineering, and have worked in multiple research and engineering short-term roles at Arm.
Professor Weijia Yuan
Professor, University of Strathclyde
Research Fellowship, 2013
I am leading a research team of 10 researchers in the area applied superconductivity including energy storage, fault current limiters and power transmission cables.
My work also involves renewable energy integration and power system stability using superconducting energy storage and cable systems.
I look forward to joining the Academy's Awardee Excellence Community and tackle the pressing engineering challenges in carbon emission reduction.
Professor Min Zhang
Professor, University of Strathclyde
Research Fellowship, 2017
Professor Min Zhang is the first female professor in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University of Strathclyde.