Wednesday, 22 September 2021
The new Fellows are Professor Sam Kingman, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Engineering and Professor Barrie Hayes-Gill who designs game-changing electronic medical devices.
Becoming a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering is one of the highest honours that an engineer can receive in the UK. The Nottingham Fellows join 67 other engineers from around the world who were elected this year in recognition of their exceptional contributions to their sectors in their own way, as innovation leaders, inspiring role models, or through remarkable achievements in business or academia.
"I am delighted to see Sam and Barrie recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering. They are outstanding engineers who are making a real difference in the world through their research, teaching and leadership, and on behalf of the University I would like to congratulate them on this great achievement.”
The Academy provides independent advice to government, delivers training programmes that help engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, engages the public with engineering and provides leadership for the profession. RAEng Fellows use their expertise to support the Academy’s mission to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all.
Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: “Our Fellows represent the best of the best in the engineering world, and we welcome these 69 excellent and talented professionals to our community of businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics.”
The new Fellows will be admitted to the Academy, which comprises nearly 1,700 distinguished engineers, at its AGM on 22 September.
Professor Sam Kingman
Professor Samuel Kingman is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He is a process engineering academic with a flair for providing industry with innovative solutions. Particularly notable are longstanding strategic collaborations with Teledyne-e2v and Rio Tinto, which have enabled step change processes to be developed for the mining, chemicals, and food industries.
His multi award-winning research focuses on the development of industrial applications of microwave heating, which have enabled increased energy efficiency, improved process performance, reduced waste and ultimately reduced costs for companies across numerous sectors.
After beginning his career at Nottingham in 2000, Professor Kingman and his collaborators have gone on to develop and commercially licence a number of industrial microwave heating technologies with a focus on the mining and minerals industries. These technologies are estimated to have received investments of well over $100m as they were developed.
His major contribution has been to develop a detailed understanding of the interaction of microwave energy with single and multi-phase materials and using this knowledge to underpin scale up to commercial level. This approach has delivered the two highest mass throughput microwave processes ever-constructed as part of international multi-partner projects funded by industry.
Professor Kingman has also authored over 300 journal articles and conference papers and is inventor on close to 200 patents from 29 patent families. He has also generated well over £25m of research income, the majority of which is from industry.
Over the years, Professor Kingman has balanced significant research impact with leadership roles at the University. In 2006, he was appointed to a personal chair in Process Engineering, which made him one of the youngest professors in the UK, aged just 34. Three years later, he became Head of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, and was the driving force behind the department’s rise to become one of the top ranked in the UK.
Since 2018, Professor Kingman has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engineering, responsible for a faculty of 900 staff and 5,000 students, with a turnover of around £90m. During this time he has focused on developing a strong people culture, and is committed to delivering a significant and measurable difference to equality, diversity and inclusion in STEMM subjects.
“It is true honour to become a Fellow and I couldn’t be prouder to join such an inspiring community of engineers. From the start of my career, I have always been passionate about building connections between academia and industry and I hope as a Fellow I can drive these links and interactions forward for the wider good of the discipline.
“I also hope to work with other Fellows to influence policy and processes that can improve diversity and retain and recruit talent in the sector. I would specifically like to acknowledge the huge support from students, collaborators, colleagues and sponsors from across the world with whom I have had the honour to work with over the course of my career.”
Professor Barrie Hayes-Gill
Professor Barrie Hayes-Gill is an electronic engineer with a passion for detail and connecting his research to applications in industry and healthcare. In his 35-year career at Nottingham, he has filed numerous patents and, with his academic colleagues, has secured more than £25m funding and investment from commercial and public sector partners.
A career highlight was the development of a wireless foetal-monitoring device and the creation of a spin-out company, Monica Healthcare, to develop this ground-breaking technology. The spin-out’s sale, for an undisclosed sum, to the global giant GE Healthcare generated significant revenue making the technology available to millions of women and unborn babies around the world. This technology recently won the RAE Colin Campbell Mitchell and the IET Healthcare Innovation awards.
Another such breakthrough technology worked on by Professor Hayes-Gill is SurePulse – a cap-based electronic device that measures a baby’s heart-rate during the first few minutes of life – allowing doctors to be hands-free, speeding up interventions and reducing risks. SurePulse was spun out by Professor Hayes-Gill in 2013 where he is currently Research Director helping to steer the company to CE and FDA approvals.
Professor Hayes-Gill is a past Head of Department, has published over 300 papers, successfully supervised 60 PhDs, is a Fellow of The IET and is a member of the Expert Witness Institute specialising in foetal monitoring and medical devices.
“Receiving this honour is a tremendous achievement, but one that could only have been achieved with the talented team that I have worked with over many years. In particular, the highly enthusiastic and engaged PhDs that I have supervised who were invaluable in the journey to commercialise our life-saving research,” says Professor Hayes-Gill on being elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
“I hope that I can repay this by providing my experience and guidance, through the Academy, to support other young entrepreneurial post-doctoral engineers who are considering spin out creation and subsequent corporate execution of their research in a commercial setting.”
Story credits
More information is available from Professor Kingman on sam.kingman@nottingham.ac.uk or Professor Hayes-Gill on barrie.hayes-gill@nottingham.ac.uk or Emma Lowry, Media Relations Manager (Engineering) on 0115 84 67156 or emma.lowry@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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