Sir Alan Walter Rudge CBE, FREng, FRS (born 17 October 1937

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) is a British electrical engineer. He was Chairman of the ERA Foundation from its formation until December 2012, after which he was appointed as the Foundation's President. In 2012 he also stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Management of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, a position he had held for eleven years; he had succeeded Sir Denis Rooke and was himself succeeded by Bernard Taylor.

Life

He earned a BSc from the

London Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Aug ...

in 1964 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham in 1968. He was head of operations at

British Telecommunications BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broa ...

. He was Chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is a past President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and was Chairman of the

Engineering Council The Engineering Council (formerly Engineering Council UK; colloquially known as EngC) is the UK's regulatory authority for registration of Chartered and Incorporated engineers and engineering technician, holding a register of these and providi ...

. He was appointed a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1984. He was until July 2014 Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director on the board of Experian plc. In 1994 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Multimedia and the Information Superhighway". In 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the University of Bath. In the New Year Honours list for 2000 he was appointed

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...

for services to Engineering Research and to Industry.

Climate change

He is a member of the academic advisory council of the

Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a charitable organization in the United Kingdom whose stated aims are to challenge what it calls "extremely damaging and harmful policies" envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global ...

, a climate change denial think tank chaired by

Nigel Lawson Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, (born 11 March 1932) is a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in the cabinet of Margar ...

. In 2010 he organized a petition of 43 denialists (about 3% of the membership) challenging the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

's "unnecessarily alarmist position" on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. He told ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' that "there is a lot of science to be done before we can be certain about climate change and before we impose upon ourselves the huge economic burden of cutting emissions." The revised guidance was published in September 2010 and its lead conclusion was "There is strong evidence that changes in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activity are the dominant cause of the global warming that has taken place over the last half century".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rudge, Alan 1937 births Alumni of the University of Westminster Alumni of the University of Birmingham British Telecom people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Living people Scientists from London