Professor Harvey Rutt elected to Royal Academy of Engineering

Professor Harvey Rutt, Rank Professor of Infrared Science and Technology, and former Head of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).

The Academy comprises the most eminent names in the engineering profession in the UK and overseas and Professor Rutt is recognized for his contribution to electro-optical research and development in laser technology for industrial application. Professor Rutt was Head of ECS from 2007 to 2010, and played a significant role before that in planning and commissioning the new Mountbatten Building, the University’s £100M world-leading research facility for optoelectronics and micro- and nanotechnology.

“I am honoured by the award of this prestigious Fellowship,” said Professor Rutt. “An award of this kind also recognises many contributions - from colleagues, collaborators here and abroad, students and research assistants who all played a part. As an experimentalist I would highlight especially the contribution of the many laboratory technicians, workshop staff and indeed secretaries who have supported my work; without them it could not have happened.”

Professor Rutt is a graduate of the University of Southampton, taking both his BSc and PhD degrees in Electronics. He established his first laser research group in Brazil before returning to the UK in 1973 when he joined the Atomic Energy Authority at Culham Laboratory, working on novel infrared gas lasers for the sixteen micron region. He was appointed to the newly established Rank Chair of Infrared Science and Technology at the University of Southampton in January 1992. His group has established a broad range of work in novel sources, instruments and systems in the mid and far infrared. He edits the Journal Infrared Physics and Technology.

Professor Andy Keane, Director of the University’s Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre for Computational Engineering, was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Professor Don Nutbeam, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, commented: “I am delighted for Andy Keane and Harvey Rutt. Their election as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering is well deserved recognition for long and distinguished careers in engineering. Both continue to ensure that Southampton remains a leading force for engineering research and education in the UK.”