‘A Road Less Travelled – Reflections on an Uncompleted Journey’

Thursday 18 December 2008

Roland is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Waste and Environmental Management. He is also Visiting Professor in Environmental System Analysis at Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden and a Director of the Merrill Lynch New Energy Technologies investment trust. In 2003, he was awarded the Sir Frank Whittle medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering “in recognition of an outstanding and sustained engineering achievement contributing to the well-being of the nation”.

In 2005 he completed a 9 year term as a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, and acted as Expert Adviser to an enquiry by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee in “Energy Efficiency”. In 2006, he was appointed a member of the Science Advisory Council of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). He was honoured in the 2006 New Year's Honours as a Commander of the British Empire for services to the environment.

The lecture started by reviewing Roland’s earlier engineering work, including his chairmanship of the UK Research Councils’ initiative in Clean Technology.

The experience of trying to develop a programme in clean technology led to a realisation that strategic environmental research cannot be put down to one single academic discipline. This led to taking the road less travelled, embarking on transdisciplinary research combining engineering, science and social science.

The lecture looked at the current environmental, social and techno-economic problems confronting society, particularly the threat of global climate change; to what the engineer’s role should be in addressing these problems; and to outlining future research challenges. Industrial Ecology was addressed as a key topic in academic research.

Roland’s journey to the University of Surrey included positions at Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., McGill University, Università di Napoli, Imperial College and the University of Cambridge. He joined the Surrey in 1981 as Professor of Chemical Engineering and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering (subsequently Chemical and Process Engineering). In 1992, he set up the Centre for Environmental Strategy, as a post-graduate and research centre.

Roland recently retired from paid University employment to become Professor Emeritus in the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey. In January 2009, he will begin a two-year term as President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.

The journey will continue…

For more information about the University of Surrey Centre for Environmental Strategy please visit: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ces

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