Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Readership in the Department of Chemical Engineering

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

1. The Department of Chemical Engineering's reputation for chemical engineering is built upon a high output of top quality research publications in internationally renowned journals, participation in leadership of the research agenda and technology translation, and strengthening the flow of well-trained science, engineering, and technology graduates into the economy. The Department has established an international reputation through major collaborations with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, and the University of Virginia (US), Monash University (Australia), the Fritz-Haber Institute and the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany), Ecole des Mines de Paris and Paris University (France) amongst others. The average research expenditure a year is about £2.5m, and there is strong international competition for visiting staff status, postdoctoral positions, and research studentships.

2. The Department has identified the field of energy as an area in which it wishes to establish itself as internationally competitive as soon as possible. Reaction engineering, in particular, is central to the chemical engineering community's contribution to energy initiatives and it builds on a natural skill base which already exists in the Department and in cognate disciplines including the Institute for Biotechnology. There is currently an opportunity to create a lead Department within the UK in the field of catalysis and reaction engineering with the ability to attract overseas research funding.

3. The Council of the School of Technology and the Chemical Engineering Syndicate therefore recommend the establishment of a Readership in the Department of Chemical Engineering, with effect from 1 October 2007, with the aim of attracting a reaction engineer who will take a leadership role in working across the traditional fields of chemical reaction engineering and the emerging fields of biofuels. 5. The General Board have accepted the Council of the School of Technology's proposal for the establishment of a Readership. The criteria for appointment to a Readership through open competition will be identical to those for appointment through the Senior Academic Promotions Procedure. The Appointments Committee will be constituted as specified in the regulations (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 698).

6. The General Board accordingly recommend: That a Readership be established in the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1 October 2007.

1 June 2007	ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor	PHILIP FORD	MELVEENA MCKENDRICK
	GRAEME BARKER	RICHARD FRIEND	KAMIAR MOHADDES
	JOHN BELL	JACOB HEAD	PATRICK SISSONS
	TOM BLUNDELL	RICHARD HUNTER	I. H. WHITE
	WILLIAM BROWN	D. W. B. MACDONALD