Doctorate of Science
A widely published physicist who earned a knighthood for services to chemical engineering and higher education.
Professor Sir William Wakeham began his academic career studying Physics at the University of Exeter, at both undergraduate and doctoral level.
In 1971, after a postdoctoral period at Brown University, USA he took up a lectureship in the Chemical Engineering Department at Imperial College London. There, he rose to become Head of Department in 1988.
From 1996 to 2001 he was Pro-Rector (Research), Deputy Rector and Pro-Rector (Resources) at Imperial College London. Among other activities he oversaw the College's merger with a series of medical schools and stimulated its entrepreneurial activities. He became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton in 2001, retiring in 2008.
His academic publications in the field of transport processes and thermodynamics include 10 books and around 400 peer-reviewed papers. He has been an editor of the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics and Chair of Commission I.2 of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
He holds the Touloukian medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and lifetime achievement awards from the European Thermophysical Properties Conference and the Asian Thermophysical Properties Conference. He has been the Rossini Lecturer at the International Conference on Thermodynamics, and Cezarilyan Lecturer at the International Thermal Conductivity Conference.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Portuguese Academy of Engineering, as well as a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the Institute of Physics.
Alongside his higher doctorate from Exeter, he holds honorary degrees from the universities of Lisbon, ‘New’ Lisbon, Exeter, Loughborough, ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú, Southampton and Southampton Solent, and is a Fellow of Imperial College London.
Until 2009, he was Chair of the University and Colleges Employers Association and the Employers Pensions Forum, and a member of the Board of South East of England Development Agency.
In 2008, he chaired a Review of Physics as a discipline in the UK for Research Councils UK, at the request of the then Secretary of State. He completed a review of the effectiveness of Full Economic Costing of Research for RCUK/UUK in 2010. In 2014 he was asked by the UK government to review the employability of graduates in STEM disciplines.
He was a Council Member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council until 2011 and Chair of its Audit Committee. He is a past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and was both Senior Vice-President and International Secretary of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2009-15.
He has been a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London, the University of Exeter and Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon. He was chair of the Exeter Science Park Company from 2009 to 2021, a Non-Executive Director of Ilika plc from 2009 to 2018, and a Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust.
At the time of writing he is Chair of the International Association for Transport Properties, and of the South-East Physics Network of Universities, and a Trustee of the Rank Prizes Fund.
He was made a Knight Bachelor in 2009 for services to Chemical Engineering and Higher Education.