Professor Martin Lowson (5 January 1938 – 14 June 2013) was an aeronautical engineer. He held a number of senior academic appointments in UK and US universities, was a co-patentee of the BERP helicopter rotor system, and also made a significant contribution to the development of

personal rapid transport Personal rapid transit (PRT), also referred to as podcars or guided/railed taxis, is a public transport mode featuring small low-capacity automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guideways. PRT is a type of automated guideway ...

systems.

Early life

Martin Vincent Lowson was born in

Totteridge Totteridge is a residential area and former village in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a mixture of suburban development and open land (including some farmland) situated 8 miles (13 km) north north-west of Charing Cross. It ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, on 5 January 1938.

Education

He attended The King's School in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

, after which he became an apprentice with

Vickers-Armstrong Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

. Lowson gained a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1963, after which he spent a year in the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research, where he worked on

aero-acoustics Aeroacoustics is a branch of acoustics that studies noise generation via either turbulent fluid motion or aerodynamic forces interacting with surfaces. Noise generation can also be associated with periodically varying flows. A notable example of th ...

Personal life

Lowson married Ann Pennicutt in 1961. They had two children, Sarah and Jonathan. Lowson's interests included squash and bluegrass music.

Death

Lowson died of a stroke on 14 June 2013, at the age of 75.

Honours and awards

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...

Award for contributions to world’s first man powered flight 1961 * Fellow of the

Acoustical Society of America The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is an international scientific society founded in 1929 dedicated to generating, disseminating and promoting the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. The Society is primarily a voluntary orga ...

1969 * Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

1991 * Busk Prize of Royal Aeronautical Society for best paper in Aerodynamics 1992. * Queens Award for Technology received by Westland Team for BERP blade 1994 * Fellow of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

1995 *

British Wind Energy Association RenewableUK, formerly known as the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), is the trade association for wind power, wave power and tidal power industries in the United Kingdom. RenewableUK has over 660 corporate members, from wind, wave and tidal st ...

Award for Research 1997 * Altran Prize for Innovations to improve urban quality of life 2001 * Fellow,

Chartered Institute of Transport The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) is a professional body representing the transport and logistics industries worldwide. It is a membership-based organisation with over 30,000 members in over 30 countries. This i ...

2003 * Viva Award for Transport Innovation from

Worshipful Company of Carmen The Worshipful Company of Carmen is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, whose origins date back to 1517. Carmen, or drivers of carts, caused upset in 1481.

2010 ::Sources:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowson, Martin English aerospace engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Academics of Loughborough University Academics of the University of Bristol Alumni of the University of Southampton People from Totteridge People educated at King's School, Worcester 1938 births 2013 deaths Fellows of the Acoustical Society of America