University’s Vice Chancellor wins lifetime achievement award for his research
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, has been awarded a prestigious European award for his outstanding academic work
Sir Christopher was awarded the Outstanding Career Award by the European Microwave Association (EuMA). His international career spans both academia and industry.
He said: “It is a very great honour for me to receive this award from the European Microwave Association recognising my international contributions to microwave engineering research and technology. It is also poignant that it was 31 years ago that I presented my first conference paper as a PhD student at the RAI conference centre in Amsterdam where I received this award”.
The Outstanding Career Award was established to recognise an individual "whose career has exemplified outstanding achievements in the field of Microwaves".
As a researcher, Sir Christopher made fundamental contributions to microwave semiconductor device and circuit technology which led to breakthroughs in the performance of power amplifiers and other circuits for mobile telecommunications, radar and satellite applications, which work at frequencies between 500 MHz and 100 GHz (mobile telephones operate between 900 MHz and 2.1 GHz).
His theoretical work led to a new type of simulator for transistor design that was over one thousand times faster than its predecessors and he also developed new designs of transistor capable of much higher performance and more readily manufactured than any previous designs.
He went on to become a Senior Staff Scientist, Technical Director and subsequently Chief Executive for international technology companies but still maintained a strong research activity and engagement with the profession, more recently as Vice—President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
As President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Surrey, Sir Christopher is still actively engaged with the engineering and microwave profession and his most recent technical paper has just been accepted for publication.
The award consists of a bronze medal carrying the name of the award and the name of the recipient. It award was given at the 2012 European Microwave Week Plenary Session held in Amsterdam in October.
The EuMA Outstanding Career Award has previously been conferred to Professor Hans Hartnagel in 2008, to Professor Tatsuo Itoh in 2009, to Professor David Rhodes in 2010, and to Dr. Kaneyuki Kurokawa in 2011.
All EuMA members are welcome to nominate exceptional individuals within the microwave field for the Distinguished Service Award and the Outstanding Career Award
Editors' Notes
Notes for Editors:
The European Microwave Association (EuMA) is an international non-profit association with a scientific, educational and technical purpose.