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Issue 9 |
SOUE News congratulates Nigel Perry on his recent election as Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Nigel read Engineering Science at St Peter's, 1976-9, and was one of the Founder members of SOUE in 1988. He was also on our Committee in its early years. His background has been in the chemical industry of the North-East, and for some years now he has been running and promoting the Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton. The Centre's objective is to take new ideas in chemical and biochemical processing that are still too immature for private industry to invest in, and put in the research, development and assessment that they need before they can "stand on their own feet". It is modelled to some extent on the numerous Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany, which have similar aims. The Centre receives funds from central government, from the EU and regional development agencies, and employs around 100 people. One independent assessment of it thinks it has secured or created some 3500 jobs in the North-East, and brought in £400m of inward investment.
Nigel's election to FREng was for his leadership of the centre, and its record of innovation and the generation of spin-out companies.
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