Alec Broers, Baron Broers

The Right Honourable The Lord Broers
Sir Alec Broers, then President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (far left), and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (centre) welcome Dr Hitoshi Narita as fellow of the Academy in 2002.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
In office 1996-2003
Chancellor	HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Preceded by	David Glyndwr Tudor Williams
Succeeded by	Alison Richard
Personal details
Born	17 September 1938 (1938-09-17) Calcutta, India
Alma mater	Geelong Grammar School Melbourne University University of Cambridge

Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, Kt, FRS, FREng (born 17 September 1938) is an Anglo-Australian electrical engineer.

Broers was born in Calcutta, India and educated at Geelong Grammar School and Melbourne University in Australia, and then University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius College) in England.

He then worked in the research and development laboratories of IBM in the United States for 19 years before returning to Cambridge in 1984 to become Professor of Electrical Engineering (1984–96) and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1985–90). He is a pioneer of nanotechnology.

Broers subsequently became Master of Churchill College, Cambridge (1990–96) and Head of the Cambridge University Engineering Department (1993–96). He was Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, 1996–2003, knighted in 1998 and created a life peer in 2004, as Baron Broers, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridgeshire. Lord Broers is Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Lords and was President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2001 to 2006.

In September 2008, Lord Broers took over from Sir David Cooksey as chairman of the board of directors at the Diamond Light Source, the United Kingdom's largest new scientific facility for 30 years.

Lord Broers has received more than twenty honorary degrees and fellowships from universities, colleges, and academic and professional institutions. He is a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the American Philosophical Society.

Summary of important events of Lord Broers

• 1938 Born 17 September in Calcutta, India
• 1941 Moved to Sydney, Australia
• 1944 Moved to Purley, Surrey, UK
• 1948 Moved to Melbourne, Australia and attended Geelong Grammar School
• 1959 BSc degree in physics from Melbourne University, Australia
• 1962 BA degree in electrical sciences from the University of Cambridge, after arriving initially as a choral scholar
• 1965 PhD degree at University of Cambridge
• 1965 Researcher at IBM USA, and serving on the Corporate Technical Committee
• 1977 Appointed to IBM Fellow by IBM’s CEO.
• 1984 Returns to the University of Cambridge as Professor of Electrical Engineering and Fellow of Trinity College
• 1990 Master of Churchill College
• 1992 Head of Cambridge University Engineering Department
• 1995 Becomes a non-executive director of Lucas Industries
• 1996 Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge (until 2003)
• 1997 Becomes a non-executive director of Vodafone
• 1998 Knighted for services to education
• 1998 Founded the Cambridge Network with Hermann Hauser and David Cleevely
• 2001 President of The Royal Academy of Engineering
• 2004 Granted a Life Peerage (became Lord Broers)
• 2004 Becomes Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
• 2005 Broers presents the Reith Lectures for the BBC
• 2008 Becomes Chairman of Diamond Light Source Ltd.
• 2009 Becomes Chairman of Bio Nano Consulting.
• 2010 Becomes Chairman of the Technology Strategy Board Knowledge Transfer Network for Transport.

See also

• List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge

External sources

• The Reith lectures, 2005 were given by Lord Broers
• Interview with Lord Broers, Ingenia Magazine, March 2005
• Profile of Lord Broers
• Lord Broers on the triumph of technology, March 2005

Academic offices
Preceded by Hermann Bondi	Master of Churchill College 1990–1996	Succeeded by John Boyd
Preceded by Sir David Williams	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1996–2003	Succeeded by Alison Richard