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Sir William Arnot Wakeham FREng (born 25 September 1944Debrett's People of Today
) is a British

chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...

. From 2001 to 2009 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton.

Education

Wakeham received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics at

Exeter University , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

.Royal Academy of Engineering biographies, Accessed 2014_01_25

Career

He served as a research associate at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1971 he was appointed lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology at Imperial College, London. He was successively Reader in 1979, Professor of Chemical Physics in 1985, and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering in 1988. His academic specialty is thermodynamics, particularly the thermophysical properties of fluids and intermolecular forces. In 1996 he was appointed Pro-Rector (Research) and subsequently also Deputy Rector and Pro-Rector (Resources) at Imperial College, holding these positions simultaneously.www.dti.gov.uk Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils: Office of Science and Technology Review of the Quinquennial Review (QQR) Accessed 2014_01_26
He oversaw the college's medical school formation in 1997 from the merger of

St Mary's Hospital Medical School St Mary's is the youngest of the constituent schools of Imperial College London, founded in 1854 as part of the new hospital in Paddington. During its existence in the 1980s and 1990s, it was the most popular medical school in the country, wit ...

Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School existed as a legal entity for 13 years, as the midpoint of a series of mergers which strategically consolidated the many small medical schools in west London into one large institution under the aegis ...

(formerly

Charing Cross Hospital Medical School Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (CXHMS) is the oldest of the constituent medical schools of Imperial College School of Medicine. Charing Cross remains a hospital on the forefront of medicine; in recent times pioneering the clinical use of ...

and

Westminster Hospital Medical School The Westminster Hospital Medical School was formally founded in 1834 by George Guthrie, an ex-military surgeon – although students had been taken on at Westminster Hospital almost from the hospital's foundation in 1719 (the traditional name a ...

), the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the National Heart and Lung Institute. In 2007 the then Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Rt. Hon.

John Denham John Denham may refer to: * John Denham (died 1556 or later), English MP for Shaftesbury * John Denham (judge), (1559–1639), father of the poet below, and one of the Ship Money judges * John Denham (poet) (1615–1669), English poet * John Denham ...

MP invited him to chair a review of UK physicsRCUK Review of Physics
/ref> which reported in October 2008. He is a visiting professor at Imperial College. He is a member of the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universi ...

(EPSRC) and chairs their Resource Audit Committee. He is a member of the

South East England Development Agency The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), was one of a number of regional development agencies in England. It was set up as a non-departmental public body in 1999 to promote the region and to enable a number of more difficult regeneration ...

(SEEDA) Board. He is a member of the European Union expert panel on philanthropy and universities. He is UK Chair of the British-Italian Partnership Programme.

Honours

He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the 2009 Birthday Honours. He was President of the

Institution of Chemical Engineers The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is a global professional engineering institution with over 33,000 members worldwide. It was founded in 1922 and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957. It has offices in Rugby, London, Melbourne, Wellingto ...

2011–2.www.icheme.org
News 23 May 2011 "Sir William appointed new IChemE president" He is a Chartered Engineer,

Chartered Physicist Chartered Physicist (CPhys) is a chartered status and a professional qualification awarded by the Institute of Physics. It is denoted by the postnominals "CPhys". Description Achieving chartered status in any profession denotes to the wider co ...

and 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 ...

, the

, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Physics and Imperial College London.2003 Fellows of Imperial College Announced
/ref> He is a Touloukian Medal holder from the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

(1997) and holds honorary degrees from Universidade Nova de Lisboa,

,Exeter Honorary Degree
/ref>

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

Personal life

He married Christina Marjorie Stone in 1969 and they had one son. They divorced in 1974. He married second Sylvia Frances Tolley in 1978 and they had two sons.Wakeham, Sir William (Arnot)’, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013; accessed 2014_01_26
/ref>

External links

University of Southampton page announcing Wakeham's knighthood and summarising his career

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakeham, Bill British chemical engineers Chemical engineering academics Vice-Chancellors of the University of Southampton Living people 1944 births Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Institute of Physics Fellows of the Institution of Electrical Engineers Knights Bachelor Alumni of the University of Exeter Academics of Imperial College London Fellows of the Institution of Chemical Engineers