Top appointments for Dean of Art, Design and Architecture
Wed, 29 Jun 2016 14:16:00 BST
Professor Mike Kagioglou becomes a CIOB Innovation and Research Panel Vice-Chair and a board member of CIB
THE University of Huddersfield is establishing itself as a major global centre for the study and research of Architecture and Built Environment, with existing and new undergraduate and postgraduate courses and PhDs with academics who are global experts in cutting-edge practice, technologies and contemporary issues, such as Critical Regionalism, Design Thinking, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Lean Construction.
Now, the Dean of the School of Art, Design and Architecture has been appointed to key roles with two of the world’s leading organisations in the field.
Professor Mike Kagioglou – whose wide-ranging academic career was taken in disciplines including engineering, design, architecture and the built environment – has become Vice Chair of the Innovation and Research Panel of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), which is the world’s largest and most influential professional body for construction management and leadership.
Established in 1834, it is UK-based but has 50,000 members throughout the world. Professor Kagioglou has been a Fellow of the CIOB for two years. Now, his new role means he shares responsibility for formulating the institution’s research profile until 2020. He will be an academic representative for the chair of the Innovation and Research Panel, industrialist Dr Rennie Chadwick, (pictured right) who is Director of Innovation and Performance for leading construction firm Osborne.
Professor Kagioglou said that CIOB’S innovation and research strategy has included priorities such as sustainability, application of digital technologies and BIM, zero carbon, corporate social responsibility and employment practices. The University of Huddersfield researches and offers Master’s courses in these subjects and has now launched undergraduate courses in building surveying, quantity surveying and construction project management. They are recruiting now and will start in the next academic year, in autumn 2016.
In addition to his CIOB role, Professor Kagioglou has been elected a board member of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, known as CIB. This major organisation, with some 5,000 members globally, was established in 1953 with the support of the United Nations, to stimulate and facilitate international collaboration and information exchange between governmental research institutes in the building and construction sector. One important goal was to help rebuild the Europe after the ravages of WWII.
It was at CIB’s world congress in Helsinki that Professor Kagioglou was elected to its board, as one of 22 members from across the globe.
Professor Kagioglou’s new distinctions coincide with his University’s growing prestige in the field of Architecture and Built Environment. Research capacity has also been greatly increased, with the establishment of three interdisciplinary research centres in key areas: the Centre for Urban Design, Architecture and Sustainability, the Innovative Design Lab and the Global Disaster Resilience Centre.
