Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, FREng FRS (born 17 September 1938) is an Anglo-Australian electrical engineer.
Broers was born in Calcutta, India and educated at Geelong Grammar School and Melbourne University in Australia, and then University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius College) in England.
He then worked in the research and development laboratories of IBM in the United States for 19 years before returning to Cambridge in 1984 to become Professor of Electrical Engineering (1984–96) and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1985–90). He is a pioneer of nanotechnology.
Broers subsequently became Master of Churchill College, Cambridge (1990–96) and Head of the Cambridge University Engineering Department (1993–96). He was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, 1996–2003, knighted in 1998 and created a life peer in 2004, as Baron Broers, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridgeshire. Lord Broers is Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords and was President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2001 to 2006.
In September 2008, Lord Broers took over from Sir David Cooksey as chairman of the board of directors at the Diamond Light Source, the United Kingdom's largest new scientific facility for 30 years.
Summary of important events in Alec Broers's life
- 1938 Born September 17 in Calcutta, educated at Geelong Grammar School, Australia
- 1959 BSc degree in physics from Melbourne University, Australia
- 1962 MSc degree in electrical sciences from the University of Cambridge, after arriving initially as a choral scholar
- 1965 PhD degree at University of Cambridge
- 1965 Researcher at IBM USA, later becoming an IBM Fellow and serving on the Corporate Technical Committee
- 1984 Returns to the University of Cambridge as Professor of Electrical Engineering
- 1990 Master of Churchill College
- 1992 Head of Cambridge University Engineering Department
- 1996 Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge (until 2003)
- 1998 Knighted for services to education
- 1998 Founded the Cambridge Network
- 2000 Awarded the Honorary DUniv. degree by the Anglia Ruskin University
- 2001 President of The Royal Academy of Engineering
- 2004 Granted a Life Peerage (became Lord Broers)
- 2004 Becomes Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
- 2005 Broers presents the Reith Lectures for the BBC
- 2007 Awarded the Honorary DEng degree by the University of Sheffield
- 2008 Becomes Chairman of Diamond Light Source Ltd.
See also
External sources
- The Reith lectures, 2005 were given by Lord Broers
- Interview with Lord Broers, Ingenia Magazine, March 2005
- Profile of Lord Broers
- Lord Broers on the triumph of technology, March 2005
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Hermann Bondi |
Master of Churchill College 1990–1996 |
Succeeded by John Boyd |
| Preceded by Sir David Williams |
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1996–2003 |
Succeeded by Alison Richard |
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