Alec Broers, Baron Broers

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Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, FREng FRS (born September 17, 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.

[edit] Summary of important events in Alec Broers's life

1938 Born September 17th 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

Alec Broers, President of the Academy stands at the far left. In the middle is H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Dr. Hitoshi Narita stands at near right. These men were photographed in 2002 on the evening of ceremonies attending Narita's election as a foreign member of the Academy.

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