 |
Sir Michael John Howard Sterling FREng [1] (born 9 February 1946) is a British professor, and a former Vice-Chancellor of the Brunel University (1990 to 2001) and the University of Birmingham (2001 to 2009).
|
Sir Michael John Howard Sterling FREng [1] (born 9 February 1946) is a British professor, and a former Vice-Chancellor of the Brunel University (1990 to 2001) and the University of Birmingham (2001 to 2009).
In 1964, Sterling joined Associated Electrical Industries (later General Electric Company plc) as a student apprentice. He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Sheffield to read electronic and electrical engineering. He graduated with a 1st class honours degree and subsequently a PhD degree in computer control in 1971.
He joined the Department of Control Engineering at the University of Sheffield as a lecturer and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1978. He then moved to the University of Durham as a professor of Engineering in 1980, before being appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University in 1990. He was appointed a Fellow [1] of the Royal Academy of Engineering [1] in 1991. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham from October 2001 to April 2009. In July 2009 he was appointed chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the agency responsible for funding big science in the United Kingdom. [2]
He was chairman of the Russell Group, representing the United Kingdom’s twenty leading research-intensive universities at a crucial time in higher education history, when the white paper on tuition fees was being debated and subsequently passed. He was also a board member of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), a board member of Advantage West Midlands (the regional RDA), a member of AWM’s Innovation and Technology Council and chair of AWM’s Information and Communication Technology Steering Group. In addition he is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and chairman of its energy sub-group.
At Brunel, Sterling oversaw the consolidation of the University and a merger with the West London Institute of Higher Education, which produced a multi-sited university with a student body of 12,000. More controversially, he closed the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, and oversaw the award of an honorary doctorate to Dame Margaret Thatcher, against strong union and student resistance.
On his appointment to Birmingham, Sterling said that he was 'looking forward immensely to the challenge of leading the University of Birmingham into its 2nd century. It is a great international university which has not forgotten its local roots. There is huge potential in the University, the City of Birmingham and the West Midlands region'. In addition, he said that he relished 'the opportunity of working with new colleagues to achieve our common purpose of maintaining and improving Birmingham's position in the front rank of universities'.
During his time at Birmingham, Sterling was at the forefront of estates developments, creating a new skyline for the campus which includes the Institute for Biomedical Research, the Business School, the Sport and Exercise Sciences building and new halls of residence including Mason Hall and the Shackleton hub. The building stock was significantly improved and the old Muirhead Tower redesigned.
Having an engineering background, two initiatives that Sterling is particularly proud to have secured for Birmingham, are the HEFCE-funded National Higher Education STEM Programme, to increase the number of graduates with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths disciplines to fulfill the needs of employers and boost the UK economy, and establishing the Energy Technologies Institute alongside Nottingham and Loughborough Universities.
Sterling retired in April 2009, following more than 19 years as a Vice-Chancellor, eight of those at Birmingham. His last major act as Vice-Chancellor was to bequeath a restructuring of the University on his successor, David Eastwood.
Sterling was knighted in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to higher education, science and engineering. [3]
Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. In June 1966, Brunel College of Advanced Technology was awarded a royal charter and became Brunel University; in 2014 the university formally adopted the name Brunel University London (BUL). The university is considered a British plate glass university.
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University of Rhodesia, and adopted its present name upon Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. UZ is the oldest university in Zimbabwe.
Birmingham City University is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic in 1971 and gained university status in 1992.
Julia Elizabeth King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, is a British engineer and a crossbench member of the House of Lords, where she chairs the Select Committee on Science and Technology. She is the incumbent chair of the Carbon Trust and the Henry Royce Institute, and was the vice-chancellor of Aston University from 2006 to 2016.
Sir David GrantFLSW is a British academic who was the vice-chancellor of Cardiff University in Wales from 2001 to 2012. Following his appointment, Grant oversaw the merger between Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine, which was completed in 2004, and the award of university status to Cardiff.
Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya,, was a British-Indian engineer, educator and government advisor. In 1980, he became Professor of Manufacturing Systems at the University of Warwick and founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group. In 2004, he was made a life peer and became a member of the House of Lords.
Midlands State University is a government owned university in Zimbabwe. The university has 9 faculties offering a wide variety of courses and many specialist programmes. The university is accredited through the National Council for Higher Education, under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education of Zimbabwe.
Sir David Stephen Eastwood,, is a British academic and long serving university leader who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham between 13 April 2009 and December 2021.
Brian Cantor CBE FREng has been a long-serving university leader, is a visiting professor in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, and a consultant at the Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) at Brunel University. He was the vice-chancellor of the University of Bradford from 2013 to 2019. Prior to this appointment he was the vice-chancellor at the University of York from 2002 to 2013, and previously he was the head of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford.
Sir Keith Burnett, CBE, FRS FLSW FINSTP is a British physicist and President Elect of the Institute of Physics. He is Chair of the Nuffield Foundation — an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance educational opportunity and social well-being, founding Chair of the Academic Council the Schmidt Science Fellows, and a member of the Board of international education providers Study Group.
Sir Leslie Colin Ebdon CBE DL is the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and Director of Fair Access to Higher Education.
Babol Noshirvani University of Technology (BNUT), sometimes also referred to as Noshirvani Institute of Technology or NIT, is a public research university and Institute of Technology in Babol, Mazandaran Province in the north of Iran, 20 km (12 mi) south of the Caspian Sea. The university is an influential center for academic research in Iran, due to which it has been consistently ranked among the top schools in the country. BNUT is currently ranked 1st among all Iranian universities according to Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. THE has also ranked BNUT between 351st and 400th among world universities, 55th among the world's young universities, as well as 43rd among Asian universities.
Dame Janet Olive Trotter is an academic and administrator in higher education; she helped found the University of Gloucestershire in 2001, becoming its first Vice-Chancellor in the same year. She lives in Cheltenham.
Richard A. Williams, OBE, FREng, FTSE, FRSE is a British academic and engineer. He is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University. He took up this position on 1 September 2015. He is also a chemical engineer, Vice President, and a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Professor Nigel Peter Weatherill, BSc, PhD, DSc, FIMA, C.Math, FRAeS, C.Eng, C.Sci, FREng, FRSA, DL is the former Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Liverpool John Moores University (2011-2018).
Bob Cryan is a British professional with Chartered Engineer and Chartered Manager designations. He has served as the Vice-Chancellor and CEO of the University of Huddersfield since 2007. Cryan served as the President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology from 2022 to 2023.
Sir David Melville, is a British physicist, academic, academic administrator, and public servant. He was Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University from 1991 to 1996, Chief executive of the Further Education Funding Council for England from 1996 to 2001, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent from 2001 to 2007.
Alexander (Alec) John Cameron is an Australian engineer and university administrator, currently serving as Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT University.
Song Yonghua FREng is a Chinese electrical engineer. He has been rector of the University of Macau since January 2018, and previously served as Executive Vice President at Zhejiang University.
Prashant Pillai is an Indian-born British computer scientist. He is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He was previously the Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Wolverhampton. He is also the Director of Cyber Quarter - Midlands Centre for Cyber Security. He specialises in security and privacy for communication networks. Pillai has led several national/international research projects in the areas of networking protocols and cyber security. He has been invited for talks at various international conferences and has published over 100 papers within peer-reviewed journals and conferences.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
