Gladden to lead EPSRC

CHEMICAL engineer Lynn Gladden will be the next executive chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Gladden, an IChemE Fellow and member of Council, is the Shell professor of chemical engineering at the University of Cambridge, UK. She is set to take up the new role in October and says it is an exciting time to join the UK’s main funder for research across the engineering and physical sciences.

“EPSRC science delivers world-leading, original thinking in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering that transforms the world we live in, and I am honoured to have been selected to be its new executive chair,” Gladden said.

The EPSRC is one of seven UK research councils that have been brought together under a new umbrella organisation called UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which has a £6bn (US$8bn) budget.

“This is an exciting time to lead EPSRC. In particular, the formation of UKRI offers opportunities for EPSRC science and thinking to expand into new fields through collaboration with partner Councils, and to explore new ways of working to deliver the UK’s Industrial Strategy,” Gladden said.

Sir Mark Walport, UKRI CEO, said: “Professor Gladden is a world-leading chemical engineer. Her ground-breaking work in academia, coupled with her strong collaborations with industry, makes her the ideal candidate to lead EPSRC and ensure the wider success of UK Research and Innovation. 

Gladden’s research has focussed on advancing magnetic resonance imaging techniques, originally developed for use in the medical sector, and using them in engineering to better understand physical and chemical phenomena that determine the performance of chemical processes and their products.

Gladden is one of four chemical engineers who serve as judges for the £1m Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.