18 July 2007

Professor Alan Vardy elected Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering

Professor Alan Vardy, of the University of Dundee, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour accorded to British engineers.

Professor Vardy is a Research Professor of Civil Engineering at the University. An international expert in the design and safe operation of road and rail tunnels, he also maintains a consultancy, Dundee Tunnel Research.

"It is an honour to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and I am particularly happy not so much for myself but for the recognition that it brings to Civil Engineering at Dundee," said Professor Vardy.

Professor Vardy is a former Deputy and Vice-Principal of the University. He came to Dundee in 1979 as Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, a post he held for six years before standing down to take up the position of Deputy Principal and subsequently Vice-Principal.

Since the early 1990s he has split his time between research work at the University and consultancy work. Through his consultancy he provides software that has been used in the design of most of the world’s major tunnels. He also organised a pioneering series of major international conferences on the safe operation of road and rail tunnels.

Professor Vardy is one of 30 new Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, all of whom, said Academy President Lord Browne of Madingley, "are the cream of the UK's engineering talent."

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