Vice-Chancellor elected Vice-President of the IET
The University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan, is pictured with his CBE that he received in February this year.
Tue, 14 Apr 2015 14:55:00 BST
Professor Bob Cryan will take up the position with the Institution of Engineering and Technology in November
THE Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan, has expressed his delight at being elected a Vice-President of a historic institution whose members have included legendary figures such as Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has its origins in the 1870s and is now the world’s largest organisation in the field. Professor Cryan, who at the age of 30 became UK’s youngest Professor of Engineering, is a long-standing member and Fellow of the IET and earlier this year its Board of Trustees nominated him for the Vice-Presidency.
Now the Institution’s members have elected him to the post and he takes up the position in November.
“For over 140 years the IET has been inspiring, informing and influencing the global engineering community, supporting technological innovation to meet the needs of society,” said Professor Cryan, who listed some of famous names who have been honorary fellows of the Institution.
In addition to Bell and Marconi, they include Lord Kelvin, who developed the concept of absolute zero temperature; John Ambrose Fleming, whose thermionic valve was vital to early radio; and Charles Algernon Parsons, who pioneered the steam turbine.
► Professor Cryan is pictured with HRH The Princess Royal on her recent visit to the campus when she officially opened the University's £22.5 million Student Central building.
The IET has a worldwide membership of over 150,000 and covers a wide range of areas including biometrics, telecommunications, electrical power systems, information security, nanobiotechnology, radar and navigation systems, wireless sensor networks and ultraminiature structures and systems.
Professor Cryan – who was awarded the CBE in 2014 for services to education – was, at the age 42, the UK’s youngest Vice-Chancellor when he took up his current post in 2007 at Huddersfield.
He is a Huddersfield graduate himself and when he obtained his IET-accredited degree in 1986 he received the Institution’s award for the year’s top student.
On his appointment as an IET Vice-President, Professor Cryan said: “It is a great honour to be elected as a Vice-President of the IET, an organisation that has given me tremendous support over the years.
“I first became involved as a student member in the early 1980s and have remained actively involved ever since, making use of their amazing engineering periodicals and resources and becoming involved in engineering education standards and chairing accreditation visits to both national and international universities.
“I am proud to be a Fellow of the IET and I am absolutely thrilled by this appointment and look forward to contributing further to the IET during my period of office.”
