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Committee

Photograph - Dr. Mike West

Prof. Mike West PhD FIET CEng

Honorary President

Mike West began his career in the aircraft industry working at Hawker Siddeley Dynamics (HSD) where he was involved mainly with missile and aircraft flight simulation. He began his research for the degree of PhD on behalf of the company whilst at HSD and later moved into the academia. He was seconded to near full-time work on the UK wave energy research programme from 1975-91 and returned to full-time academic work when the government ceased funding research for wave energy. He was appointed the Head of Department of Systems & Electronic Engineering at Coventry University which offered degree programmes in Electronics, Telecommunications, ICT, Avionics, Aerospace Systems, Aerospace Technology until his retirement. He has lectured in electronics & instrumentation on a range of courses and also in orbital mechanics to final year aerospace students. He was a key Co-Founder of the AAU in 1997 and was its Secretary and/or Treasurer from its inception for over 10 years. Having served as the Vice President for a few years, he was appointed as the President of the AAU on the First of April 2015 when the now immediate Past President John Farley OBE stepped down after completing his term of six years at the top. As a consequence of attending Alumni events in his old Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Liverpool University over the years, he decided to finance a prize awarded to the winning team in a design competition in which he actively participates by attending laboratory experiment sessions and observing the competition process. In June 2014, the University of Liverpool conferred upon him the title of Honorary Visiting Professor. He feels extremely privileged to receive this recognition as it was unsolicited and a complete surprise.

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Dr. David Philpott PhD

Honorary Vice President

Dr. David Philpott retired from the University of Hertfordshire and holds the position of Reader Emeritus (Aerospace Engineering). He is currently employed as an Aerodynamic Consultant with R.G.W. Cherry and Associates Limited and as Head of Transonic Aerodynamics and Internal Flow with IHS ESDU. His current and recent research interests include transonic aerodynamic prediction methods, wind-tunnel testing techniques, use of fractal methods in flow monitoring and aircraft performance, particularly relating to contaminated runways. Between 1959 and 1961 Dr. Philpott was employed as a Scientific Officer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment where he worked on Concorde wing development and the Aero Flights Department - working on Concorde lateral stability. He then moved to Hatfield Polytechnic (later the University of Hertfordshire) as Lecturer/Reader, where he spent 50% of his time on supersonic blunt body flow and shock wave interaction research for the MoD. In 1990 Dr Philpott was appointed Assistant Chief Research Engineer at British Aerospace (Commercial Aircraft) Hatfield, Herts and acted as chairman of the patents committee. From British Aerospace, Dr. Philpott joined Raytheon Corporate Jets as Principal Aerodynamics Specialist. During his time with British Aerospace and Raytheon, his activities included work on the aerodynamics and performance of the 125, U125A and 146 aircraft among others. Dr Philpott also sits on the IHS ESDU Transonic Aerodynamics Committee, is Chairman of the RAeS (Hatfield) branch and is an Honorary Fellow of the Association of Aerospace Universities.

Photograph - Thurai Rahulan

Dr. Thurai Rahulan BSc (Hons) PhD AMIMechE FRAeS

Honorary Chair

After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering Science from Salford University in July 1979, Thurai Rahulan embarked on a postgraduate research programme to study the extension of feedback control technologies in multi-mode systems which earned him a PhD. This was followed by full-time employment to address the feasibility of implementing such systems in various aircraft on contracts funded by the British Ministry of Defence. He then joined the Advanced Engineering Group at Jaguar Cars Limited in Coventry and gained invaluable experience working in industry dealing with customers & suppliers alike. On returning to Salford as a lecturer he continued to liaise with professional institutions and served on various committees including the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society for over a decade. He retired in November 2021 and is currently a Visiting Fellow at Staffordshire University.

Photograph - Professor Moji Moatamedi

Prof. Moji Moatamedi BEng MSc MBA LLM PhD MASME FRAeS FNucI

Honorary Vice Chair

Professor Moatamedi completed his engineering education including Ph.D. at The University of Sheffield, MBA at Manchester Business School of The University of Manchester; and LLM International Business Law at The University of Leeds. He is currently the President of the Al Ghurair University, United Arab Emirates. He is also Adjunct Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University. Prior to his current post, he was the Chair of Multiphysics at UiT The Arctic University of Norway where he was the Director of Multiphysics Centre. Previously at Imperial College London, Narvik University, Cranfield University, The University of Salford and The University of Sheffield, he held senior managerial positions and also carried out research and teaching in the areas of Multiphysics, Fluid-Structure Interaction, Modelling and Simulations and Engineering Design. During his stay at Imperial College he was the Technical Manager for the Centre for Nuclear Engineering, in Narvik he was the Founding Director of High North Technology Centre; at Cranfield the Director of Motorsport Engineering and Management; and at Salford the Director of the Centre for Engineering Materials and the Director of Aerospace Engineering. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications, commercial reports and presentations including keynote addresses at international symposiums and conferences. He has risen substantial funding for research and innovation projects from the UK and overseas research councils, European Union, industry and other sources. He successfully supervised many Ph.D. students to completion and many more graduate projects. He has extensive teaching experience on a wide range of engineering, management and law subjects including modeling and simulations, project management and intellectual property. He has been an external examiner for many research and teaching programmes internationally including the engineering courses at Emirates Aviation University. His stakeholders' management, industrial research and engineering experience includes working with the UK Ministry of Defence, the Health and Safety Executive, Electrolux, Shell, Hitachi, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, BAE System and Airbus UK. He is the founder, Executive Director and the President of The International Society of Multiphysics (www.multiphysics.org), the Editor-in-Chief of 'The International Journal of Multiphysics' and the Chairman of the associated annual conferences. He has also served on advisory boards of many international conferences and events and he is currently the Elsevier Multiphysics Series Editor. He is Fellow Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Fellow Member of The Nuclear Institute, Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Member of the Euro Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as the Chairman of the Manchester Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society and he has been a member of a number of national and international scientific committees; and advisor to a few industrial and governmental bodies including the Office for Nuclear Regulations (ONR), in addition to being the lead person to devise the multiphysics competence standards for European Union. He is currently a member of the Council and the Board of Directors of NAFEMS (www.nafems.org), a board member of CSDI Foundation (www.csdi.no) and also the Vice Chairman of the Association of Aerospace Universities (www.theaau.org). He served as a member of the Board of Governors of European Nuclear Education Network and the Vice Chairman of NAFMES Multiphysics Working Group. He has been a Visiting Professor, Scientist and Senior Research Fellow at a number of institutions including Universities of Manchester (UK), Tongji (China), Kumamoto (Japan), Strathclyde (UK), King Saud (Saudi Arabia), Chester (UK), Lille (France); as well as Beijing Institute of Technology (China) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA).

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Dr. Hassan A Khawaja BEng(Aerospace) MPhil PhD MIET CEng

Honorary Secretary

Dr. Khawaja is Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering and Safety, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway. He is member of the process engineering team and leader of the Research Group 'Infrared Imaging, Spectroscopy and Numerical Modelling'. He is a Chartered Engineer and holds the posts of Vice President (Scandinavia) of the International Society of Multiphysics, Director in Technical Listening Division in Global Listening Centre (GLC). He is the Coordinator of the annual Multiphysics Conference, Editorial Manager for the International Journal of Multiphysics and Member of the Editorial Board of Vestnik of MSTU. He is also the Board Chair and former Chief Executive Officer/founding member of the start-up, 'Windtech AS'. He received distinguished prizes such as the Multiphysics Student Prize, W F Reddaway Prize, Commonwealth Scholarship, and President Gold Medal. He has also received grants and prize funding for the regional R&D and innovation. He actively publishes journal papers, presents at international conferences, applies for research funds and encourages innovative research. He is collaborating with a number of researchers in China, France, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States. He has formal education in 'Pedagogical Competence for Higher Education' and 'Research Supervision' from UiT-The Arctic University of Norway.

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Dr. Andy Lewis MA MSc PhD

Honorary Treasurer

Andrew Lewis is Head of Aeronautics and Space Division at University of Hertfordshire. He has been engaged in research, both within Industry and Academia for over 20 years within the fields of structural dynamics, aeroelasticity and non-linear dynamics. In recent years, these interests have focussed on the development of inverse methods for estimating loads on aerospace structures with the increasing need to extend the life of such structures being a particular application. He has also been interested in the practical application of probabilistic-based methods for the clearance of aerospace structures.

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