Engineering – Page 4 – WEST

30Sep

By uwsalumni1 Comment

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

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...

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...