Alumni Stories – Page 15 – WEST

Class of 1978 civil engineers celebrate their 40 year reunion

2Jul

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Alumni Stories, News

Class of 1978 civil engineers celebrate their 40 year reunion

Almost 40 years to the day the BSc Hons Civil Engineering class of 1978 met again for the first time since graduation in Paisley on 7th July 1978. The full class of six were joined by former staff members Professor Ian MacLeod who was head of civil engineering, and Bob Hardy who was the senior lecturer of the Structures Group to celebrate 40 years since graduating. The group met for dinner the previous evening before returning to UWS Paisley Campus on Friday 29th June 2018 to recreate their class picture and for a tour of the campus by Ewan O’Brien, Alumni Engagement Manager. The group: Grant Murdie; Arthur Nicholls; James Young; Graeme Forsyth; Alastair Black; and Douglas Trail, who have all gone on to have successful careers in engineering, had not all been together since fini...

Inspirational alumnus celebrates six years of TEDxGlasgow

4May

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Alumni Stories

Inspirational alumnus celebrates six years of TEDxGlasgow

University of the West of Scotland (UWS) alumnus Gurjit Singh Lalli is the Founding Curator of TEDxGlasgow which is now in its sixth year and continues to go from strength to strength, with the annual event set to take place on Friday 1st June 2018 at The SEC Armadillo in Glasgow. Business and Management graduate Gurjit is an entrepreneur with a keen interest in philanthropy and developing social venture capital firms. An avid TED fan, Gurjit acquired the licence for TEDxGlasgow in 2012, bringing together a team of volunteers to form an organisation that is now one of the most established TEDx events in the UK and Europe. Gurjit was named Businessman of the Year at the 2014 Scottish Asian Business Awards. I loved my time at UWS, the best thing about the course was that it was ve...

30Sep

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Alumni Stories, Profiles

The High Flier

Gordon McConnell is internationally recognised as Chief Engineer of the iconic and innovative Airbus A350, the ultra-long range aircraft transforming the future of air travel. He has won several honours, including an honorary doctorate from UWS in 2008 and the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Gold Medal in 2014. The first recipients of the medal, awarded for outstanding work in aerospace, were Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1909: Gordon also shares the distinction with Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, who invented the turbojet engine, and Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, designer of the Mosquito warplane. But as a pupil at Ayr Academy, Gordon was far from certain about his future career. “When I’m advising young people, I say ‘Get in your mind what you really love doing and then go for i...

Les Hutchison Awarded Honorary Doctorate

1Jul

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Alumni Stories, Honorary Graduates

Les Hutchison Awarded Honorary Doctorate

Retired Lanarkshire-born businessman Les Hutchison was honoured by UWS with an Honorary Doctorate at the graduation ceremony on Wednesday 1 July 2015 at the Town House, Hamilton. Les is an alumnus of the University, graduating from the former Bell College in 1974 with an HNC Electrical Engineering and also completing a Higher Supplementary (HS) in Control Systems and Mathematics in 1975. After further education and experience, he became an Incorporated Engineer. Dr Les Hutchison said: "I am very honoured and humbled by this award from the University. The University is a leader in innovating and adapting education needs for the future to ensure Scotland prospers. I fully support the work of the University and wish it and my fellow graduates every success in the future." Early in hi...

9Aug

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Alumni Stories, Honorary Graduates

The Quiet Philanthropist

Alumnus Les Hutchison talks about his global engineering career and his desire to give back to the University. Lanarkshire-born businessman Les Hutchison is a quiet philanthropist. He has a strong belief in “giving something back,” but he does it without fanfare. He has, however, made an exception for his recent very generous financial donation to University activity, by allowing us to feature him in this article in the hope that it will inspire others in his position to follow his example. “My task is not only to help the University directly, but to encourage other alumni like me to come forward,” he explains. Les, who is currently Vice Chair and a Director of the Canadian energy services company, ShawCor Ltd, left Bell College of Technology (now part of UWS) with an HNC Elec...

Lord McFall Receives UWS Honorary Doctorate

11Jul

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Alumni Stories, Honorary Graduates

Lord McFall Receives UWS Honorary Doctorate

Lord John McFall received an Honorary Doctorate from University of the West of Scotland (UWS) at its graduation ceremony on 11 July 2012 at Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church, Paisley. Rt Hon John McFall, Lord McFall of Alcluith, was made a Peer in the 2010 Dissolution Honours List, following 23 years’ service as the Member of Parliament for Dumbarton and later West Dunbartonshire. Lord McFall is a graduate from Paisley College of Technology and is best known for his time as Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Committee, a position he held between 2001 and 2010. Under this chairmanship, the Treasury Committee gained a high profile by taking on prominent issues such as globalisation, the economics of climate change and the private equity industry. In the House of Lords, Lo...