The School of Engineering is delighted to announce that George Tuckwell, Divisional Director for Geoscience and Engineering at RSK, has accepted an Honorary Professorship within the School. RSK Group provides a vertically integrated consultancy and contractor delivery of geosciences, environmental and engineering services. RSK’s multidisciplinary capability includes expertise in ground engineering and contaminated land assessment, backed by the largest ground investigation capability in the UK. The geosciences consultancy includes the UK leading, world class, RSK geophysical consultancy who provide surveys, site investigation and expert advice to the in the legal, energy, property and transport sectors.
The School of Engineering will benefit from George’s industry experience, bringing real-world examples into the class room ranging from site investigation, buried utility detection and environmental assessments. George’s experience in Geophysics will also enhance students’ experience, supporting projects and PhDs. The School of Engineering will be able to develop projects that meet industry needs using the National Buried Infrastructure Facility to be opened in 2019. RSK will benefit from access to cutting-edge research to ensure RSK remains at the forefront of the industry.
The relationship will strengthen the School of Engineering’s continued collaboration in research; there have been a number of a long-standing partnerships with George through the Mapping the Underworld and the Assessing the Underworld projects, as well as the Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology; Innovate UK funded projects SIGMA; and most recently, REVEAL (March 2017). With George accepting the honorary position, the School of Engineering will be able to strengthen its relationships and expand into both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Moreover, it strengthens the links between the Schools of Engineering and Physics and Astronomy through the Quantum Technology Hub.
George Tuckwell says: “I’m delighted to accept the position, which will cement the mutually fruitful relationship we’ve developed with the university over recent years. It is an honour to be associated with a research and teaching institution with the standing of the University of Birmingham, and our collaborative work will continue to benefit RSK and our clients”.
Professor Kai Bongs from the School of Physics and Astronomy says “George Tuckwell is providing outstanding contributions to our quantum technology innovation work in gravity sensing. He combines fantastic real-world application expertise, with deep scientific knowledge in the inversion space; in other words, in making sense of gravity data. George enriches the Birmingham student experience with purposeful hands-on practice and contributes highly valued advice to the UK National Quantum technology Hub via the Application and Technology Exploitation Panel.”
Nicole Metje, Reader in Infrastructure Monitoring from the School of Engineering says: “We are delighted that George has accepted the position of Honorary Professor at the University. We have been collaborating with George for many years now and this was the natural next step. It will provide our students with direct access to industry through research projects, PhDs and hands on lecturers. This provides students with added value as it places their learning in a practical context and provides them with real applications. Moreover, we will be seeing our research translated into industry, which is already happening through our joint InnovateUK projects. We expect this to continue and excel.”