Royal Academy of Engineering welcomes new Fellows
01/11/2024
At its AGM in September 2024, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) elected 71 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology to its Fellowship.
The group consists of 60 Fellows, six International Fellows and five Honorary Fellows, each of whom has made exceptional contributions to their own sector, pioneering new innovations, leading progress in business or academia, providing high-level advice to government or promoting wider understanding of engineering and technology.
This year’s new Fellows continue to reflect the Academy’s ongoing Fellowship Fit for the Future initiative announced in July 2020, to drive more nominations of outstanding engineers from under-represented groups ahead of its 50th anniversary in 2026. This commits the Academy to strive for increased representation from women, disabled and LGBTQ+ engineers, those from minority ethnic backgrounds, non-traditional education pathways and emerging industries and those who have achieved excellence at an earlier career stage than usual.
The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 27 November, when each Fellow will sign the roll book. In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy’s overarching strategic goal to harness the power of engineering to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all.
Among the newly elected RAEng Fellows is BINDT Fellow Bruce Drinkwater FInstNDT, Professor of Ultrasonics with the School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol.
Professor Drinkwater is founder of the Ultrasonics and Non-Destructive Testing Research Group with five academic staff and 30 PhD students and research assistants.
He is Director of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Innovation in Non-Destructive Evaluation and Editor-in-Chief of NDT & E International. He has pioneered industrial applications of ultrasonic arrays in non-destructive testing, as well developing innovative devices for condition monitoring and particle manipulation. His research has been commercialised through licensing and spin-outs and changed industrial practice by inclusion in international standards.
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| Professor Bruce Drinkwater |
The AGM also confirmed the election of Dr John Lazar CBE FREng as the new President of the RAEng for a five-year term.
Discussing the new Fellows, Dr Lazar said: “Our new Fellows represent some of the most talented people in the world of engineering and are taken from the ranks of those who are aiming to address some of our most critical problems. We are proud to say that many of our newly elected Fellows have come from under-represented groups in engineering and related sectors and we hope this helps to tackle some of the issues around a lack of diversity within the profession. There is ample evidence that a wider pool of ideas and experiences helps to improve decision-making and develop novel solutions to global challenges.”
