Reporter 13/6/01: Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Prince Philip Professorship of Technology

Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Prince Philip Professorship of Technology

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In this Report, the General Board propose the establishment of a Prince Philip Professorship of Technology to mark the eightieth birthday, on 10 June 2001, of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election as Chancellor of the University in 1976.

2. The University has had a distinguished history of teaching and research in technology since the Department of Engineering was established in 1875. In recognition of the distinctive identity of the technology departments and the importance placed on technology by the University, the School of Technology was established in January 1993. The School comprises the Department of Engineering, the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Computer Laboratory, and the Judge Institute of Management Studies. HRH The Duke of Edinburgh has been closely associated with technology in the University since he opened the Baker Building of the Department of Engineering on Trumpington Street in 1952. In 1953 he became patron of the Cambridge University Engineers' Association, a position which he has held ever since. In addition to his active support of technology within the University and throughout the country, it was his initiative that led in 1976 to the foundation of The Fellowship of Engineering (renamed The Royal Academy of Engineering in 1992) of which he is the Senior Fellow.

3. The field of technology is very broad and the School needs to continue to develop its teaching and research, and to enhance its collaboration with other Departments in the University, in order to address the challenges of the emerging areas in, for example, energy, communications technology, medical engineering, sustainability, and bio-informatics. By analogy with Professorships on the John Humphrey Plummer Foundation, which covers the broad field of the natural sciences, the General Board, after consulting the Council of the School, have agreed that there would be considerable merit in creating a Professorship of Technology, not assigned to any specific Department in the School.

4. Accordingly, the General Board propose that the scope of the Professorship should embrace all the disciplines represented in the School and that, on the occasion of each election, it should be decided, in accordance with Statute D, XV, 17, whether candidature should be open or should be limited, or preference given, to candidates working within a particular field within the general field of technology. The assignment of the Professorship to a Faculty or Department would be deferred until after each election and the election would be made by a specially constituted Board of Electors in accordance with Statute D, XV, 5.

5. With the concurrence of the Faculty Board of Engineering, the General Board propose that, sub-ject to the establishment of the new Professorship, the Professorship of Engineering 1966 (Grace 4 of 1 December 1965) be suppressed when it becomes vacant on 1 October 2001 and the associated recurrent funding be transferred to support the new Professorship.

6. The General Board recommend:

I. That a Prince Philip Professorship of Technology be established in the University from 1 October 2001 and placed in Schedule B of the Statutes.

II. That regulations for the Prince Philip Professorship as set out in the Schedule to this Report, be approved.

III. That if recommendation I is approved, the Professorship of Engineering 1966 (Grace 4 of 1 December 1965) be suppressed.

23 May 2001	ALEC N. BROERS, Vice-Chancellor	KEITH GLOVER	PETER LIPTON
	TONY BADGER	MALCOLM GRANT	A. C. MINSON
	P. J. BAYLEY	J. C. GRAY	KATE PRETTY
	N. BULLOCK	BRIAN F. G. JOHNSON	M. SCHOFIELD

SCHEDULE

Prince Philip Professorship of Technology. 2001.

1. The Prince Philip Professorship of Technology shall be tenable by any person whose work falls within the scope of the disciplines represented within the School of Technology. The duties of the Professor shall be to undertake teaching and research in his or her subject and to promote the interests of technological disciplines in the University.

2. On the occasion of a vacancy in the Professorship the General Board shall consult the Council of the School of Technology, and the Faculty Boards or comparable authorities of institutions in the School, in accordance with Statute D, XV, 17, about whether the Professorship should be filled and the questions relating to candidature for the Professorship specified therein.

3. The Professor shall be elected by a specially constituted Board of Electors under the provisions of Statute D, XV, 5.

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