Professor Neil Alford and Professor Peter Cheung have been appointed Deputy Principals of the Faculty of Engineering, reporting to Professor Jeff Magee, Principal of the Faculty of Engineering.
Professor Neil Alford accepted appointment as Deputy Principal (Research) with effect from 1 April 2011 in succession to Professor Jeff Magee on his appointment as Principal. He continues as Head of the Department of Materials. Professor Alford joined the College in 2007 as Professor in Physical Electronics and Materials following roles at ICI and London South Bank University where he was Pro-Dean for research. He became Head of the Department of Materials in 2010. His research focuses on electronic materials including high Q microwave dielectrics and functional thin films. He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Materials, Metals and Mining, the IET, the RSC and the American Ceramic Society. In 2008 he was awarded the Griffith Medal by IOM3 and was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the same year.
Professor Peter Cheung accepted appointment as Deputy Principal (Teaching) with effect from 1 September 2011 in succession to Professor David Nethercot on his retirement. He continues as Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Professor Cheung joined the College as an undergraduate student in 1970 in the Department of Electrical Engineering. After graduating in 1973, he spent three years working for Hewlett Packard in Scotland before returning to Imperial as a research student. He was appointed lecturer in 1980 and, following a series of promotions, became Professor in Digital Systems in 2002. His research focuses on reconfigurable systems and VLSI architectures. He was among the first group of staff to be recognised as Imperial College Teaching Fellows in 1994.