University news

Professor Muffy Calder, Professor of Formal Methods in the Department of Computing Science is one of 60 new Fellows to be elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The announcement was made at the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Academy, with the new Fellows being recognised for their achievements and contribution to the profession.

The Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, Professor Anton Muscatelli said “I am delighted that Professor Calder has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.  Her inclusion in the Fellowship is a well-deserved honour, recognising the major contributions that she has made to research in her field of Computing Science, and to interdisciplinary research in various areas of science and engineering."

Muffy Calder spends 60% of her time as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish Government, but she is also Professor of Formal Methods in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. Until 2012, she was Dean of Research in the College of Science and Engineering at Glasgow, where she has been since 1988. She has a long record of combining academic work with public service, having been a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Service, chair of the UK Computing Research Committee and a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Technical Opportunities Panel.

Professor Calder’s research work is in formal modelling and analysis techniques for co-ordination and interaction in concurrent and communicating systems. Her work uses mathematics and automated reasoning systems and has applications in a broad range of science and engineering industries, from telecommunications to biochemical systems and intracellular signalling.  She has worked with a number of companies including BT and NATS.   

Sir John Parker GBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says:

“We warmly welcome our new Fellows to the Academy. With their expertise, knowledge and vision we will continue to strengthen our ambition of providing authoritative, impartial, and expert engineering advice to government and to develop the Academy’s growing impact and influence on a global stage.”

The Academy honours the UK's most distinguished engineers. It aims to take advantage of the enormous wealth of engineering knowledge they possess and, through the interdisciplinary character of its membership, it provides a unique breadth of engineering experience to further the art and practice of engineering in all its forms.

Election to The Academy is by invitation only; up to 60 Fellows are elected each year from nominations made by existing Fellows. They will be expected to participate fully in the work of the Fellowship, and by giving it the benefit of their knowledge and experience, help to promote the status of engineering.

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Founded in 1976, The Royal Academy of Engineering promotes the engineering and technological welfare of the country. The Fellowship – comprising the UK’s most eminent engineers – provides the leadership and expertise for our activities, which focus on the relationships between engineering, technology, and the quality of life. As a national academy, we provide independent and impartial advice to Government; work to secure the next generation of engineers; and provide a voice for Britain’s engineering community.

Biographies of the new Fellows are available at http://www.raeng.org.uk/about/fellowship/newfellows.htm

First published: 29 July 2013