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The Fellowship
Hall of Fame
Lord Broers FREng FRS
President of The Royal Academy of Engineering 2001− 2006
Lord Broers played a
significant role in the University of Cambridge’s
rise as a major economic force and centre of
excellence for high technology and was
vice-chancellor between 1996 and 2003. He has always
expressed strong views about the role of engineers
in society, considering that any artificial barrier
between engineering and the rest of science is just
as damaging as the perceived division between the
arts and sciences. He sees engineering and science
as two sides of the same coin and believes The Royal
Academy of Engineering is ideally placed to drive
home this message.
Lord Broers spent nearly 20
years of his career in research with IBM in the USA,
working at the Thomas J Watson Research Centre in
New York, the East Fishkill Development Laboratory
and at Corporate Headquarters.
When he arrived back in
Cambridge, Lord Broers set up a nanofabrication
laboraratory to extend the technology of
miniaturisation to the atomic scale. He also
developed his research on using electrons, X-rays
and ultra-violet light in microscopy and on making
microelectronic components.
Lord Broers has served on
numerous national and international committees,
including the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council, the Foresight Panel on Information
Technology and the NATO Special Panel on Nanoscience
and was a member of the government’s Council for
Science and Technology. He was elected to the Royal
Society in 1986, to The Academy in 1985 and became a
Foreign Member of the US National Academy of
Engineering in 1994.
He is on the Board of
Directors of Vodafone and of RJ Mears LLC. In March
2004 he joined the Board of Plastic Logic as
non-executive Chairman and in December of the same
year became Chairman of the House of Lords Science
and Technology Committee.
On 21 June 2004, Her Majesty
the Queen made him a life Peer in recognition of his
contribution to engineering and higher education.
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1938 |
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Born 17
September in Calcutta
Educated at Geelong Grammar School, Australi |
| 1959 |
Graduates in physics from Melbourne University |
| 1962 |
Graduates in electrical sciences from the University of Cambridge after arriving initially as a choral scholar |
| 1965 |
Completes PhD research at University of Cambridge |
| 1965 |
Researcher at IBM USA, later becoming an IBM Fellow and serving on the Corporate Technical Committee |
| 1984 |
Returns to Cambridge as Professor of Electrical Engineering |
| 1990 |
Master of Churchill College |
| 1992 |
Head of Cambridge Engineering Department |
| 1996 |
Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge |
| 1998 |
Knighted for services to education |
| 2001 |
President of The Royal Academy of Engineering |
| 2004 |
Granted a
Life Peerage |
| 2004 |
Becomes
Chairman of the House of Lords Science and
Technology Committee |
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