As one Sidney Fellow stands down as head of the University’s Department of Engineering, another takes up the reins! Professor Dame Ann Dowling has taken over as head of the University's Department of Engineering as Professor Dowling takes on the role of head of the University’s largest Department.

Previously head of the Engineering Department’s Aeronautical Engineering Division, Professor Dowling has spearheaded the Division’s work on the ‘Silent Aircraft Initiative’, in collaboration with MIT, which has taken a radical approach to propose a new design of aircraft of the future based on a single wing which will be significantly quieter than existing aeroplanes, as well as being more fuel efficient. She also acted as chair of the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering commission that investigated the issues associated with the development of nanotechnology.

She succeeds Professor Keith Glover, who has been head of Department for the last seven years. During this time, Keith has overseen a significant expansion of the Department, with the opening of major new facilities for Electrical Engineering in 2006 and for Manufacturing Engineering in the last few months – both on the University’s West Cambridge site. During his tenure, the Department was shown to be home to the best Engineering Research in a UK University in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

This is an archived news story, first posted in 2009.


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