The Department of Engineering Science is the

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

department at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. It is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. Unlike many universities that divide engineering into separate departments, Oxford integrates all major branches of the discipline within a single department. In the

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

by subject 2025, Oxford's engineering department was ranked 2nd globally, achieving a score of 96.7 in global engagement and placed 1st worldwide for its international research network. The University of Oxford was also ranked 1st overall in the

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

2025. The department is primarily located on a triangular site bordered by

Banbury Road Banbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, with its local shopping centre. Parallel and to the west is the ...

to the west,

Parks Road Parks Road is a road in Oxford, England, with several Oxford University colleges along its route. It runs north–south from the Banbury Road and Norham Gardens at the northern end, where it continues into Bradmore Road, to the junction with Bro ...

to the east, and

Keble Road Keble Road is a short road running east–west in central Oxford, England. To the west is the southern end of the Banbury Road with St Giles' Church, Oxford, St Giles' Church opposite. To the east is Parks Road with the University Parks opposi ...

to the south. Its main building is the Thom Building, a tall concrete and glass structure completed in the 1960s. The building contains lecture theatres, teaching and research laboratories, and administrative offices, and is equipped with a rooftop wind tunnel used for aerodynamics research. Additional low-rise buildings have been constructed to the north in subsequent years, forming an interconnected complex of facilities. The department's location within the Oxford University Science Area places it in close proximity to institutions such as the

Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the univers ...

and the

Radcliffe Science Library The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Being officially part of the Bodleian Libraries, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences a ...

, as well as landscaped open spaces like the Oxford University Parks.

Buildings

The department is headquartered in the

Thom Building The surname Thom is of Scottish origin, from the city of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Angus, and is a sept of the Clan MacThomas. Thom is also a first-name variant of the abbreviation "Tom" of "Thomas" that holds the "h". People with the surname ...

, constructed in 1960, which contains two main lecture theatres, four floors of teaching, research, and technical support laboratories, core administrative offices, and a dedicated student study area. Adjacent to the Thom Building is a cluster of four interconnected buildings that house academic and postgraduate research space, some of which is shared with the Department of Materials. In addition to its main site, the department operates several satellite facilities across Oxford. These include the Old Road Campus Building (home to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering), the Southwell Building (housing the Oxford Thermofluids Institute), Eagle House (home to the Oxford Man Institute for Quantitative Finan

, the George Building (hosting the Oxford Robotics Institute) and the Institute for Advanced Technology at

Begbroke Science Park Begbroke Science Park is a science park located five miles north of Oxford, England. It is owned by Oxford University and managed as part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division It lies within the parish of Be ...

History

The Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford was established in 1908 with the appointment of its first professor, Frewen Jenkin, a distinguished engineer and grandfather of Lord Jenkin of Roding. The department’s Jenkin Building is named in his honour. On 2 February 1909, the Honour School of Natural Science (Engineering Science) was formally instituted by the University of Oxford Statutes, marking the beginning of structured engineering education at the university. Originally located at 6

, on the southern edge of what is now known as the Keble Road Triangle within the Oxford University Science Area, it has since grown with the core of the department still occupying this site. The main departmental building, the Thom Building, was completed in 1963. It is named after

Alexander Thom Alexander Thom (26 March 1894 – 7 November 1985) was a Scottish engineer most famous for his theory of the Megalithic yard, categorisation of stone circles and his studies of Stonehenge and other archaeological sites. Life and work Early ...

(1894–1985), a Scottish engineer, professor of engineering at Oxford, and pioneer in the study of archaeoastronomy, particularly known for his work on megalithic sites and ancient metrology. The adjacent Holder Building, opened in 1976, is named after Professor W.A. Holder, who played a significant role in expanding the department’s academic and research activities. In 2008, the Department of Engineering Science celebrated its

centenary A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

, where Lord Jenkin served as patron. Events included lectures, exhibitions, and the publication of a commemorative history, Mechanicks in the Universitie, authored by Alastair Howatson. Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science is unique in the UK for offering a general engineering degree at the undergraduate level, rather than requiring immediate specialization. In particular, students study a broad core curriculum covering mechanical, civil, electrical, biomedical, and information engineering in the early years, followed by specialization in later stages. This integrated model is designed to develop engineers with strong interdisciplinary and analytical skills. The department hosts several institutes, including the Oxford Robotics Institute, known for advances in autonomous navigation and robotics; the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, which focuses on medical imaging, diagnostic systems, and computational physiology; and the Oxford Thermofluids Institute, specializing in fluid mechanics, combustion, and heat transfer. In 2023, the department received a £10 million philanthropic gift from the Reuben Foundation to advance research in sustainable infrastructure and climate-resilient energy systems.

Undergraduate programme

The intake of students into the department is between 160 and 170 annually. The department offers a general engineering course, where students only specialise in one of six areas in their third and fourth years of their Masters in Engineering degree (MEng). These specialisations are: #

Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

Chemical Engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Information Engineering Information engineering is the engineering discipline that deals with the generation, distribution, analysis, and use of information, data, and knowledge in electrical systems. The field first became identifiable in the early 21st century. Th ...

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

Students can also choose to follow an Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Management (EEM) pathway in the third and fourth years of their degree. This option is taught in coordination with the

Saïd Business School Saïd Business School (Oxford Saïd or SBS) is the business school of the University of Oxford. The school is a provider of management education. Business and management classes started at Oxford in 1965 when the Centre of Management Studies, ...

Graduate programmes and research

The department has approximately 500 full-time and part-time postgraduate research students. The research degrees offered by the department are Masters by Research - MSc(R), Doctor of Engineering -

DEng Deng may refer to: People and ethnic groups * Deng (Chinese surname), including a list of people with the name **Deng Sui, empress dowager of the Eastern Han Dynasty. ** Deng Xiaoping, leader of China 1978–1989 ** Honghao Deng (born 1994), Chines ...

and Doctor of Philosophy -

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

. Research is conducted in the following areas: *

Control Systems Engineering Control engineering, also known as control systems engineering and, in some European countries, automation engineering, is an engineering discipline that deals with control systems, applying control theory to design equipment and systems with d ...

Energy Engineering Energy engineering is a multidisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on optimizing energy systems, developing renewable energy technologies, and improving energy efficiency to meet the world's growing demand for energy in a sustainable man ...

* Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Management *

Materials A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their ge ...

Offshore Engineering Offshore geotechnical engineering is a sub-field of geotechnical engineering. It is concerned with foundation design, construction, maintenance and decommissioning for human-made structures in the sea.Dean, p. 1 Oil platforms, artificial island ...

* Opto-electronics *

Process Engineering Process engineering is a field of study focused on the development and optimization of industrial processes. It consists of the understanding and application of the fundamental principles and laws of nature to allow humans to transform raw mate ...

Solid Mechanics Solid mechanics (also known as mechanics of solids) is the branch of continuum mechanics that studies the behavior of solid materials, especially their motion and deformation (mechanics), deformation under the action of forces, temperature chang ...

* Thermo-fluids *

Turbomachinery Turbomachinery, in mechanical engineering, describes machines that transfer energy between a Rotor (electric), rotor and a fluid, including both turbines and gas compressor, compressors. While a turbine transfers energy from a fluid to a rotor, ...

The department also houses the following research institutes: #

Oxford e-Research Centre The Oxford e-Research Centre (OeRC) is part of the Department of Engineering Science within the University of Oxford in England and is a multidisciplinary informatics and Data science research and education institute. The Centre was founded in ...

# Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) # Oxford-Man Institute (OMI) # Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) # Oxford Thermofluids Institute (OTI) # The ZERO Institute # The Podium Institute

Research impact

The department is consistently ranked among the world’s leading engineering institutions for academic output, research quality, and global collaboration. The key research areas include: * Robotics and Autonomy: The department hosts the Oxford Robotics Institute, a centre for research in

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

, and autonomous systems. It has produced influential work in

simultaneous localization and mapping Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is the computational problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of an Intelligent agent, agent's location within it. While this initially ap ...

(SLAM), driverless vehicles, and multi-agent collaboration. The institute has spun out companies such as Oxa. * Biomedical Engineering: The Institute of Biomedical Engineering develops technologies in

diagnostic imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to revea ...

, physiological modelling, and

medical devices A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

. Projects include computational modelling of the human heart and innovations in wearable dialysis systems. * Thermofluids and Propulsion: The Oxford Thermofluids Institute conducts research in

fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...

, and

thermal systems A thermodynamic system is a body of matter and/or radiation separate from its surroundings that can be studied using the laws of thermodynamics. Thermodynamic systems can be passive and active according to internal processes. According to inter ...

. It has longstanding collaborations with industry partners including

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, and the

UK Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

. * Sustainable Infrastructure and Energy Systems: In 2023, the department received a £10 million donation from the Reuben Foundation to support research on net-zero technologies, green construction, and resilient infrastructure. Oxford's Department of Engineering Science is also actively involved in several university-wide and national initiatives, including the Oxford Net Zero programme, the Institute for Energy Studies, and cross-disciplinary collaborations through the AI x Science partnership with the Oxford

Department of Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design and ...

and the Medical Sciences Division.

Spin-out companies

Approximately 40 spin-out companies have been founded from research originating from the department. These start-ups continue to operate across sectors including medical technology, biotechnology, energy, transportation, instrumentation, materials science, nanotechnology, optics, robotics, and information technology. Notable examples are PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, YASA, OrganOx, First Light Fusion, Oxsonics, Oxbotica, Sensyne Health, OxVent,

Mind Foundry Mind Foundry is an artificial intelligence company that is headquartered in Oxford, Oxfordshire. The company is a spin-out of the University of Oxford and was founded by two professors of machine learning at the university, Stephen Roberts. an ...

, Oxa, and Opsydia.

Notable alumni and faculty

;Fellows of the Royal Society *

J. Michael Brady Sir John Michael Brady (born 30 April 1945) is an emeritus professor of oncological imaging at the University of Oxford. He has been a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, since 1985 and was elected a foreign associate member of the French Academy ...

Alison Noble Julia Alison Noble (born 28 January 1965) is a British engineer. She has been Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford and a fellow of St Hilda's College since 2011, and Associate Head of the Mathematical, Phy ...

* Philip Torr * Andrew Blake *

Roberto Cipolla Roberto Cipolla (born 3 May 1963) , FREng, is a British researcher in computer vision and Professor of Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Education Cipolla was born in Solihull, England and attended Langley School in ...

Andrew Zisserman Andrew Zisserman (born 1957) is a British computer scientist and a professor at the University of Oxford, and a researcher in computer vision. As of 2014 he is affiliated with DeepMind. Education Zisserman received the Part III of the Mathema ...

Brian Spalding Dudley Brian Spalding (9 January 1923 – 27 November 2016) was Professor of Heat Transfer and Head of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Unit at Imperial College, London. He was one of the founders of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and an int ...

Charles Frank Charles Reser Frank (born April 17, 1947) is an American actor noted for playing Bret Maverick's cousin Ben Maverick in the 1978 TV movie ''The New Maverick'' with James Garner and Jack Kelly, and in the short-lived 1979 television series '' ...

Warren East Sir David Warren Arthur East (born 27 October 1961) is a British businessman and engineer. He is a former chief executive officer (CEO) of Rolls-Royce Holdings, a leading UK-based engine manufacturer, and previously held senior positions at ARM ...

, CEO of Rolls-Royce * Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte *

Donal Bradley Donal Donat Conor Bradley is the Vice President for Research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. From 2015 until 2019, he was head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division of the Univer ...

Charles Frewen Jenkin Charles Frewen Jenkin, CBE, FRS (24 September 186523 August 1940) was a British engineer and academic. He held the first chair of engineering at the University of Oxford as Professor of Engineering Science. Early life Jenkin was born on 24 Se ...

* Richard Vynne Southwell * Derman Christopherson * David Clarke * Laszlo Solymar * Ted Paige ;Timoshenko Medal Recipients * Richard Vynne Southwell ; Heads of Department * 1908-1929:

*1929-1942: Richard Vynne Southwell *1945-1961:

*1961-1977: Douglas William Holder *1979-1989: Charles Peter Wroth *1989-1994:

*1994-1999: David Clarke *1999-2004: Rodney Eatock Taylor *2004-2009: Richard Darton *2009–2014: Guy Houlsby *2014–2019:

Lionel Tarassenko Lionel Tarassenko, Baron Tarassenko, (born 17 April 1957), is a French-born British engineer, academic and life peer. A leading expert in the application of signal processing and machine learning to healthcare, he has been the president of Reub ...

*2019–2024: Ronald A. Roy *2024-present: Clive Siviour ; Alumni with Significant Contributions *

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms ''Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and in the film series '' Johnny English'' (2003– ...

, actor, comedian, and screenwriter *

Brian Bellhouse Brian J. Bellhouse (1 October 1936 – 12 June 2017) was a British academic, engineer, and entrepreneur, the inventor of PowderJect, a needle-free injection system for delivering medications and vaccines. He was also a professor at the Universi ...

, founder of PowderJect *

, pioneer in molecular electronic materials *

, a founder of

computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid dynamics, fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required ...

. *Constantin Cousssios, distinguished professor in biomedical engineering * Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte, known for probabilistic methods for robotics *

, CEO of

Rolls-Royce Holdings Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and dist ...

, theoretical physicist * Shaukat Hameed Khan, optical physicist * Paul Newman (engineer), founder of Oxbotica * Ronald A. Roy
65th George Eastman Distinguished Visiting Professor
ref> *

, medical imaging researcher and first female Statutory Professor in Engineering at Oxford *

Janet Pierrehumbert Janet Breckenridge Pierrehumbert (born 1954) is Professor of Language Modelling in the Oxford e-Research Centre at the University of Oxford and a senior research fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. She developed an intonational model which incl ...

, National Academy of Sciences, ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement 2020 * Eleanor Stride, pioneer in drug delivery systems, Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists *

Anne Trefethen Anne Elizabeth Trefethen FREng is Pro Vice-Chancellor (People & Digital), and professor of Scientific Computing at the University of Oxford. She is a fellow of St Cross College. Her work in industry and academia focuses on numerical algorithms ...

, computer scientist and professor of

high-performance computing High-performance computing (HPC) is the use of supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Overview HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into ...

, visionary pioneer in computer vision * Leslie Fox, mathematician, doctorate student of Richard Vynne Southwell *

Bill Bradfield Keith Noel Everal ("Bill") Bradfield , FIEAust (25 December 1910 – 12 June 2006), also known as K. N. E. Bradfield, was an Australian civil and aviation engineer, public servant and diplomat, who served two terms as Australia's Permanent Rep ...

, aviation engineer, and recipient of Edward Warner Award *

Ann Nicholson Ann E. Nicholson (born June 1965) is an Australian academic specialising in computer science. She is the Dean in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in Melbourne. She is a researcher in the specialised area of Bayesian net ...

, Dean in the Faculty of Information Technology of

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

References

External links

Department of Engineering Science website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oxford University, Engineering Science Department 1908 establishments in England Universities and colleges established in 1908

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...