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A group of five men and one women stand chatting in a room with large windows.
  • Software & computer science
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 100

Raspberry Pi: the chip that floated a thousand ideas

For Dr Eben Upton CBE FREng, floating the Raspberry Pi business on the London Stock Exchange is another step in a career that has straddled engineering and business.

A white woman with blonde hair stand on metal steps with ventilation tubes in the background. She wears a red dress and blue blazer.
  • Civil & structural
  • Health & medical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 99

The expert looking at how air moves around buildings

When COVID-19 hit the planet, medical expertise was everywhere, but when it came to working out how the virus spreads Professor Catherine Noakes OBE FREng was one of a handful of experts in how air moves around in buildings.

A woman in glasses looking relaxed and smiling in an office
  • Mechanical
  • Sports & leisure
  • Profiles
  • Issue 98

On the fast track to green hydrogen

Dr Caroline Hargrove CBE FREng's career has taken her from pioneering research in computer modelling of particle interactions, into racing car simulators, and onto medical technology and the production of green hydrogen.

Professor Simon Pollard standing in a university research department.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Profiles
  • Issue 97

A champion of the green economy

Professor Simon Pollard OBE FREng’s confidence in the idea of a circular economy began when he set out to turn harmful waste into useful materials. His career as an environmental engineer has encompassed many aspects of the waste and water utility sectors.

Quick read

  • Design & manufacturing
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Profiles

Q&A: Deborah Meaden

Ahead of this year’s National Engineering Day, green Dragon, Deborah Meaden emerged from the Dragon’s Den to share a few secrets of success with Ingenia.

  • Mechanical
  • Transport
  • Profiles
  • Issue 96

Keeping complex systems on track

Kuldeep Gharatya FREng has been a key advocate for systems thinking at TfL – to the advantage of all London Tube users.

A woman wearing a white shirt, standing in front of a white wall.
  • Software & computer science
  • Transport
  • Profiles
  • Issue 94

The entrepreneur solving engineering problems with data

Elspeth Finch MBE FREng started her first company in her 20s and is now heading up her second, which is using data to transform supply chain relationships.

Two men stand either side of a dialysis machine
  • Health & medical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 93

The journey to portable dialysis

Professor Clive Buckberry FREng believes that successful engineering needs an injection of artistic thinking, along with a dose of physics and the ability to use pictures to make a point.

A black and white photograph of a young man sitting in a helicopter.
  • Aerospace
  • Mechanical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 92

The helicopter flight fixer

When Philip Dunford FREng started his career, flight test engineers flew alongside pilots. As his career progressed, flying time gave way to developing new aircraft.

A photo of Lucy Rogers holding an engineered metal bubble maker, surrounded by bubbles
  • Mechanical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 91

Inventing a communication revolution

Professor Lucy Rogers FREng’s career is not typical of many engineers: starting with engineering bubbles for firefighting, it has taken in television, animated dinosaurs, along with inventions and stand-up comedy.

  • Electricals & electronics
  • Technology & robotics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 90

An innovator who fills a vacuum

From outer space to the depths of the earth, Professor Trevor Cross FREng seeks new uses of the technologies that enabled the electronic revolution.

A portrait of Professor Rafellea Ocone holding an hourglass timer.
  • Chemical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 89

The ethics of engineering net zero

Professor Raffaella Ocone OBE FREng FRSE's career journey encompasses biofuels, carbon capture, and even landslides and volcanoes. She's now pioneering teaching ethics to engineering students.

A black and white photograph of a six-year-old girl wearing glasses and a polka dot dress.
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 88

The outsider who changed the system

As a Jewish Holocaust survivor, political refugee and woman in engineering, Dr Agnes Kaposi FREng has every reason to call herself an outsider. But it didn’t stop her from becoming the third woman ever to be elected as a Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow.

Dr Rajapillai (RV) Ahilan on a sunny beachside promenade in Italy.
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Maritime & naval
  • Profiles
  • Issue 87

Sound moorings for a renewable career

For Dr RV Ahilan FREng, a career that started in offshore oil and gas has turned him into a champion for renewable energy. He used his knowledge of fluid mechanics and marine experience to push the commercialisation of offshore renewables.

A headshot of Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng.
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Profiles
  • Issue 86

Facing engineering’s ultimate challenge

Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng – with teams to manage in Singapore, the UK and the US – was one of the first people in the UK to experience how the pandemic would affect engineering operations

A headshot of Dervilla Mitchell CBE FREng.
  • Civil & structural
  • Profiles
  • Issue 84

Teams that count

Dervilla Mitchell CBE FREng has created engineer and architect teams to work on major projects. The recipient of the 2020 Royal Academy of Engineering President’s Medal- Mitchell has used her engineering skills to help keep Arup’s firm running during COVID-19 and also to chair a decarbonisation project for the National Engineering Policy Centre.

A headshot of Leigh-Ann Russell FREng
  • Profiles
  • Issue 83

A vital link in the chain

As Head of Upstream Supply Chain at BP, Leigh-Ann Russell FREng is responsible for a team of 900 and a budget of $20 billion a year. Her position builds on skills developed as a completion engineer, working on drilling operations in the harsh North Sea offshore operating environment.

A headshot of Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE.
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Profiles
  • Issue 82

Life in electrifying times

Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, elected President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, has worked as a transmission and distribution engineer. He joined the academic world when the electric industry was going through a business and technology revolution, becoming immersed in sustainable energy policy issues.

A portrait photo of Stephen Temple FREng.
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 81

A spectrum of generations games

Stepen Temple CBE FREng worked as an engineer within government to shape modern telecommunications and lay the foundation for today’s trillion-dollar global mobile industry. His career in the civil service has spanned the history of mobile telephony and he managed to recue 5G from a bureaucratic black hole.

Jo da Silva sitting at a table, having a conversation with another person.
  • Civil & structural
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Profiles
  • Issue 80

Structures for a sustainable society

The growth of megacities and factors such as climate change have changed the nature of the challenges engineers face. Jo da Silva OBE FREng warns of the growing need to consider the resilience of the infrastructure that sustains cities and their inhabitants.

Nick Rogers smiling, standing in front of a Land Rover.
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Profiles
  • Issue 79

Driven to an electrifying future

From apprentice to Executive Director of Product Engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, Nick Rogers FREng takes a special interest in young engineers. His career has included managing the transition to electric vehicles while simultaneously developing new car models.

A headshot of Susan Gray CB OBE FREng.
  • Profiles
  • Issue 78

A role model for the next generation

Air Marshal Susan Gray CB OBE FREng has taken on many roles in the Royal Air Force (RAF), including responsibility for procurement, supporting the RAF’s response to emergency relief, raising the profile of engineering among young women and preparing the headquarters for the future.

Professor Sir Saeed Zahedi OBE FREng standing on a stage in front of a microphone, giving a talk, with a board saying 'Innovation is great Britain' behind him.
  • Health & medical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 77

Developing the first integrated prosthetic leg

Professor Sir Saeed Zahedi OBE RDI FREng combined his interest in mechanical engineering and medicine when biomedical engineering only had a few research groups. He is now Chief Technology Officer and Technical Director of the Blatchford Group, running a team that developed the first integrated prosthetic leg.

A headshot of Dr Shaun Fitzgeralsn FREng wearing a suit, smiling and resting his hands on a banister.
  • Energy
  • Profiles
  • Issue 76

Building a sustainable career

Dr Shaun Fitzgerald FREng has moved between academia, strategic consulting and running his own business, and is now the new Director of the Royal Institution. A career that started in geothermal energy research moved to natural ventilation in buildings, leading to a business that has changed the nature of building design.

A headshot of Dr Sara Williamson FREng
  • Civil & structural
  • Profiles
  • Issue 75

Foundations for a construction revolution

For a young Dr Sarah Williamson FREng, summer holidays were spent on her father’s building sites. Today, she leads a team of engineers at one of the UK’s largest construction sites and is pioneering the implementation of ‘digital engineering’ in construction.

  • Mechanical
  • Sports & leisure
  • Profiles
  • Issue 74

A formula for success

Over the past 30 years, Paddy Lowe FREng has seen Formula One motor racing grow from small teams to a billion pound enterprise at the forefront of technology. He has introduced active suspension, hybrid engines and other key technologies that have changed the profile of motor racing.

A headshot of Professor Timothy Leighton FREng FRS.
  • Health & medical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 73

A talent for bursting bubbles

Creatures of all sizes, from bacteria to whales, have shaped Professor Timothy Leighton FREng FRS FMedSci' career. It started where he began to research the physics of sound in water and then an invention to clean medical devices brought him into antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance.

A headshot of Suranga Chandratillake.
  • Software & computer science
  • Profiles
  • Issue 72

Natural born code writer

A childhood introduction to writing software for a BBC Micro set Suranga Chandratillake FREng on a path that led to Silicon Valley, and a hugely successful software startup before he returned to the UK and began backing the next generation of young entrepreneurs.

Professor Neville Jackson FREng.
  • Mechanical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 71

Thinking about the revolutions

An interest in engines first drew Professor Neville Jackson FREng into engineering and, over the years, his work has covered almost everything related to transport. As Chief Technology Officer at Ricardo. he considers the future of car manufacturers and modern mobility engineering.

Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng speaking at Aston University.
  • Materials
  • Environment & sustainability
  • Profiles
  • Issue 70

Forging links between academia and industry

For Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng, materials science has been a common theme in a career that has taken in the academic world at all levels, to becoming a vice-chancellor, along with time in the higher echelons of corporate engineering at Rolls-Roce.

A headshot of Warren East CBE FREng.
  • Mechanical
  • Electricals & electronics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 69

Taking engineering to industry

Becoming CEO of Rolls-Royce has taken Warren East CBE FREng from electronic chips to jet engines. This change in industries isn’t as dramatic as it might seem as, after all, they both operate at the cutting edge of engineering.

A headshot of Steve Holliday FREng, leaning against a wall.
  • Energy
  • Profiles
  • Issue 68

Energy with connections

When Steve Holliday FREng moved from the oil industry into energy distribution, the sector was seen as staid. In reality, during his years at National Grid, the sector became increasingly important as the need to tackle climate change led to a transformation in the UK’s energy mix.

A headshot of David Cleevely CBE FREng with his hands together in front of his face.
  • Technology & robotics
  • Software & computer science
  • Profiles
  • Issue 67

A web of networks

Information technology has come a long way since David Cleevely CBE FREng investigated the suitability of computers for word processing and communications. He has been shaking up innovation in the UK and trying to do something about the advice that governments receive on technical matters.

Professor Jiang and Sir Patrick Stewart in robes, holding a glass award.
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Profiles
  • Issue 66

Integrating metrology in business and academe

Professor Jane Jiang’s interest in measuring began when she worked on a bus production line in China. She found that the best way to improve quality, consistency and productivity was through metrology, the science of measurement. Today, she runs the UK’s largest metrology research group.

A headshot of Professor Paul Newman FREng.
  • Technology & robotics
  • Profiles
  • Issue 65

Instilling robots with lifelong learning

In the basement of an ageing red-brick Oxford college, a team of engineers is changing the shape of robot autonomy. Professor Paul Newman FREng explained to Michael Kenward how he came to lead the Oxford Mobile Robotics Group and why the time is right for a revolution in autonomous technologies.

A headshot of Nick Mckeown.
  • Software & computer science
  • Profiles
  • Issue 64

Evolving the internet

He may have given the world the technology that speeded up the internet, but in his next move, Professor Nick McKeown FREng plans to replace those networks he helped create.

Ralf Speth, crouching next to an old Jaguar at a formal event in Germany.
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Mechanical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 63

R&D investment makes good business sense

In just five years, Dr Ralf Speth FREng has presided over a revolution in design and manufacturing that has helped create a new family of engines and has overhauled Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) production facilities.

A headshot of Michelle McDowell MBE.
  • Civil & structural
  • Profiles
  • Issue 62

Creating user-friendly buildings

For Michelle McDowell, a former Business Woman of the Year, a passion for joined-up design thinking and building information modelling with a user-friendly approach has enabled her to pioneer revolutionary changes in her field.