Lord Alec Broers is a true child of globalization. Born in India and educated in Australia and England, he spent nearly 20 years doing key research for IBM in America.
Now he is a member of the British House of Lords, where he serves as the chairman of the Science and Technology Committee.
Throughout his long career as a researcher, academic and, now, as a politician, Lord Broers has become one of the most respected electrical engineers of his time. He received a degree in physics from Melbourne University and a degree in electrical sciences from Cambridge University. He is a "world class engineer," University President Lawrence Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily.
After researching for IBM during a key period of computer development, he became a professor of electrical engineering and began a nanofabrication laboratory, where he used a scanning electron microscope to create electrical parts at the atomic scale.
He is considered a pioneer of nanotechnology. Since his success as a researcher, he now serves on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Foresight Panel on Information Technology and the NATO Special Panel on Nanoscience.
Lord Broers was knighted in 1998, and the queen of England named him a "life peer" in 2004, according to The Royal Academy of Engineering's Web site.
In 1992 he became the head of the Cambridge University Department of Engineering, and in 1996 he became the vice chancellor of Cambridge.
While there, he "played a significant role in the University of Cambridge's rise as a major economic force and centre of excellence for high technology," according to a profile on the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) Web site. He was president of the RAE from 2001-2006.
Broers will be receiving an honorary doctorate of science.
